The objectives of this project are to analyse and conceptualise: 

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• The transformation of ecological conflicts into ecocentric lawsuits, who the main actors are (claimants, courts, defendants, interveners, victims, etc.), and whether alternative options such as operational-level grievances mechanisms (OLGM) are considered; 

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• How ecocentric networks operate, how they are greening human rights litigation, and the scope of ecocentric case law; 

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• The institutional capacity of ecocentric courts to rule on ecological lawsuits in a context of transnational operations of global value chains (GVCs) and the quality of their case law from a legal, economic and ecological perspective; 

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• The type of remedy these lawsuits are seeking and obtaining, i.e. whether the goal of filling ecological governance gaps has a waterfall effect (or not) on access to remedy for victims of ecological harm, who are not always the claimants.

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This project is motivated by increasing lawsuits lodged in the public interest of protecting ecosystems, to fill the legal and governance gaps that obstruct the sustainable conservation of these ecosystems. The character and scope of these lawsuits is varied, depending on their level (local, international, transnational), involved actors, their objectives, and the ecological conflicts at stake (climate change, biopiracy, pollution, deforestation, carbon leakage, forced displacement, intergenerational justice, etc.) 

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For the purposes of this project, ecocentric courts are the ones that render progressive judgments that directly or indirectly protect ecosystems by enforcing individual or collective environmental human rights, or by recognising the autonomous rights of ecosystems.