The entry of scientific findings and arguments into international law on climate change is necessary and inevitable. A wealth of scientific evidence is available on the causes, impacts, adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Such scientific findings are needed not only to better grasp the causes and extent of the problem as well as possible solutions, but also for giving concrete substance to legal norms and concepts. Knowledge stemming from (climate) science is vital to understand, interpret and apply fundamental legal notions such as causation, risk, precaution, proof, highest possible ambition and significant or irreversible harm. As such, (climate) science can play a key role in giving concrete content to international obligations and establishing causal links between the (in)action of States contributing to climate change and climate impacts. While there is increasing recognition of the potential gains of further collaboration between international lawyers and climate scientists, this potential is currently underexploited.

The aim of the project is to enhance our understanding of how climate science has been used, and can be used, in the development, interpretation and application of international legal rights, obligations and procedures, including litigation, that are relevant to climate change. It examines how scientific knowledge relating to climate change – including its causes, impacts, future risks and mitigation –can be incorporated into, or used by, international law.

In addition to the legal research undertaken at the Amsterdam Center for International Law by individual researchers, this project primarily undertakes a collaborative multidisciplinary approach to questions arising in the context of international law on climate change, through a collaboration between a group of climate scientists and international law scholars.

SciLex: Forum for Climate Science and International Law Exchange

Multidisciplinary exchange at the interface between science and international law takes place through the SciLex Forum for Climate Science and International Law Exchange, which consists of an interdisciplinary group of climate scientists and international law scholars.

After kicking off their collaboration at a two-day workshop organized by dr. Natasa Nedeski in June 2023 in Amsterdam, with funding obtained through the KNAW Early Career Partnership, members of the SciLex Forum got together in Copenhagen in May 2024 to continue their discussions and strengthen their collaboration at the interface between climate science and international law. A follow-up workshop will take place in 2025 in London.

The main added value of the SciLex Forum lies in its academic nature. Many individual members bring with them practical experience in the fields of climate policy, litigation and negotiation, but all are ultimately academics trying to push the academic state of the art, and this is and will remain the focus of collaborations.