A Plea for a Cultural Approach to Comparative Climate Law

Drawing on recent developments in comparative legal methodology, this article advocates for a cultural approach to comparative climate law. Cultural comparison interprets similarities and differences between climate laws by relating them to the underlying values, principles, traditions, shared beliefs, and prevailing modes of thought within their respective legal systems. Particularly in climate law, cultural comparison draws attention to different ways of composing and engaging with legal mechanisms and of perceiving climate change, as well as to the legal and cultural transformations that our experiences of climate governance may engender. The operationalization of cultural comparison can be illustrated through both explanatory and interpretative frameworks which retrospectively focus on how people act and what they think. In practical terms, rather than seeking harmonization or promoting foreign practices, the cultural approach emphasizes the value of diversity in knowledge and legal systems and calls for more intercultural dialogues.