Green Lawfare: Environmental mobilization in the era of judicialization

In this article, we explore the concept of ‘green lawfare’, an increasingly popular strategy of environmental mobilization combining legal and political instruments to create new repertoires of social action. We offer a conceptualization of this emerging term and examine its pervasiveness in the context of three key factors: the increasing role of courts in politics (judicialization), the utility of legal actions (effectiveness), and current developments in the environmental movement (institutionalization). We illustrate this through a series of lawsuits filed against the transnational oil company Shell. These cases exemplify the diverse practices of green lawfare, the variety of social actors employing it, and the range of possible outcomes from its application. While green lawfare is no panacea, the blend of politics and law into a coherent ensemble can be a potent tool for actors to wield legal power in addressing the most pressing global challenge of our time —climate change.