ABSTRACT
From a normative perspective, the private-public law paradigm in the context of climate litigation offers elegant conceptual clarity, but a positive account reveals constant boundary-blurring. The goal of this chapter is to demonstrate this point using India as a case study. It finds significant challenges in parties’ ability to bring private law claims of the conventional type grounded in common law in India. No private law claims have, therefore, arisen as yet in the realm of climate change. At the same time, private law concepts and principles have formed the bedrock of public law adjudication in India in dealing with issues pertaining to the environment, thereby performing a supporting role than playing the lead act. Equally, novel developments in public law in the climate space could infuse fresh life into private law concepts relevant to corporate climate litigation, thereby signifying a cross-pollination of ideas between private and public law.
Varottil, Umakanth, Corporate Climate Litigation in India: Traversing the Private-Public Law Divide (June 5, 2025), NUS Law Working Paper No 2025/009; chapter in Douglas Kysar and Ernest Lim (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Private Law (Oxford University Press, 2026, forthcoming).
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