Climate change and property rights changes

Abstract

© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Fennie van Straalen, Thomas Hartmann and John Sheehan; individual chapters, the contributors. Law is traditionally considered one of the instruments that can be used to eliminate certain factors that influence climate change. However, that relationship is much more complex. Between law and climate change exists a certain interaction. In many countries, property rights will be, due to climate changes, further restricted, both in the public interest, and because of existential interests of other individuals. For a long time, in the spirit of legal liberalism, the opinion has been that the state can forbid the owner of a particular property from doing something with it, but that it cannot demand that he/she does something in the public interest with the property. However, the number of so-called positive obligations will increase, along with increase in climate change. The Court of Justice of the EU in one of its judgments stated: “the right to property … is not absolute but must be viewed in relation with its social function.” In order for a higher level of social cohesion to be achieved in crisis situations caused by climate change, legal regulations should be harmonized with moral rules, to a greater extent. Society should create a more just law, while individuals should apply it with more mutual understanding and solidarity.