Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
Increasingly, civil liability law is invoked for shaping corporate climate change obligations. This Chapter takes as its starting point that civil liability cases dealing with corporate climate change responsibilities reside at the frontiers of the domain of private law. It addresses three overarching issues concerning the role that civil liability law, and civil courts, may or may not assume when shaping corporate climate change obligations. These issues pertain to the institutional competence of civil courts, the extent to which liability law can function autonomously as a source of corporate climate change obligations, and the effectiveness of liability law in reducing (global) greenhouse gas emissions. One might emphasise the limited role of civil liability law in shaping corporate climate change obligations, and the boundaries to that role, from a regulatory-oriented perspective, thereby stressing the lack of institutional competence of civil courts and the ineffectiveness of liability law in dealing with dangerous climate change. Yet, such a view fails to recognise that civil liability law has its own peculiar autonomous nature, which focuses on the competence of civil courts to offer legal protection and to ensure effective enforcement of legal obligations. Seen from this perspective, civil liability law plays a valuable autonomous role in shaping corporate climate change obligations, which enables it to address gaps in the public regulation of corporate climate change responsibilities.

de Jong, Elbert, Civil Law Torts (July 25, 2025).