Access to Justice and Climate Change

Monica Taylor, Donna Askew,
Bronwyn Lay, and Sharmiah Sritharan

Lawyers play an important role in society. Every day, lawyers help people resolve disputes and understand their legal rights and obligations. Lawyers also support institutional accountability and due process and contribute towards upholding the rule of law. One of the most important features of a healthy democracy is equality before the law and effective access to justice. Making sure that everyone in society (not just the rich and powerful) can access justice is fundamentally the role of lawyers and the legal profession.

In recent years, lawyers and legal scholars have been thinking about climate change as a barrier to accessing justice. This chapter explores the connection between law, legal systems, climate change, poverty and marginalisation. It examines what it means to be an effective lawyer working to support access to justice in the Anthropocene.