Climate Litigation and Norm Dynamics: What’s the Role of Domestic Judges?

Abstract Domestic climate lawsuits are proliferating, and their framing and resolution increasingly suggest connections to broader global climate governance. This article examines the agency of domestic judges in shaping these connections. By reviewing 1,573 domestic climate decisions for references to five international environmental law (IEL) concepts (norms, principles, and emergent concepts), we demonstrate that domestic judges across regions and legal systems are connecting individual disputes to global climate discourse. Through qualitative review of decisions (n = 143) that exhibit evidence of reference to IEL concepts, we next characterize domestic judges’ engagement. We show that, collectively, judges’ incorporation of IEL concepts (through norm pairing and norm usage) can support their domestic adoption in ways that simultaneously advance global climate governance and reinforce the global effect of those concepts. Ultimately, we urge broader recognition of domestic judges as key agents of norm development in global climate governance and additional global environmental politics analysis of the collective agency exercised by domestic judges.