The Scientific Committee of the European Expertise and Expert Institute has decided to award the EEEI 2024 prize to the publication Experts et arguments juridiques – Contribution à l’étude des procès climatiques, published in December 2024 by Dice, directed by Professor Christel Cournil (Sciences Po Toulouse). The book offers an in-depth analysis of the role of expert evidence and legal arguments in climate litigation.
It aims to document and reflect upon the role of experts in recent high-profile ‘climate trials’ held before national courts (France – Grande Synthe and Affaire du siècle cases, Netherlands – Royal Dutch Shell case, England, etc.) and international courts (European Court of Human Rights – KlimaSenniorinnen v. Switzerland
case, ITLOS, etc.), some of which have resulted in unprecedented decisions.
The book adopts a broad definition of the concept of expert, as it deals not only with the role of technical experts in assessing causal link and liability for global warming, but also and above all with the role of legal experts, who have helped to shape the legal arguments in the various trials covered in the book, whether by directly assisting the parties or by filing third-party opinions asamicus curiae. Although this definition is unusually broad, it highlights and documents a reality of modern litigation, where legal experts deliver opinions that are then filed as evidence in court proceedings.
The book is over 600 pages long and brings together contributions from over thirty academics and practitioners. Some of these contributions examine and analyse existing cases. They explain in detail how the teams that assisted the plaintiffs organised themselves and worked. Other contributions explore how similar proceedings could be initiated in other jurisdictions, including on other continents, particularly in South America.
This book makes an important contribution to understanding how teams of technical and legal experts really work, and reveals the importance of legal experts. It also documents the course of some major disputes of our time, namely climate litigation.
The book is available on OpenEdition Books.
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