Ruling for Sustainability: Exploring new ideas of collaboration for an improved knowledge basis in the environmental courts

Environmental law plays a central part for the transition towards sustainability.

This project aims for more effective decisions in the Swedish Land and Environment Courts related to climate, water and biodiversity by improving the knowledge basis handed in to the courts.

The question of knowledge is central, because values that cannot be described monetary or quantitatively are generally valued less in the courts’ decisions. The courts need a knowledge basis with a better representation of connections, uncertainty and long-term effects. It is well known that stakeholders can contribute to a more comprehensive knowledge basis.

Poorly run collaborative processes will not aid the production of a sustainable knowledge basis for the courts.As a case study, the project focuses on upcoming trials for reconsidered environmental requirements for hydropower. Currently, numerous extensive legal processes are planned to continue until 2040.

One part of these legal processes is a new kind of pre-trial collaborative process. Hydropower explicitly connects climate, water resources and biodiversity.

It plays a key role for climate change transformation with its large production capacity and the flexibility it offers to the energy system.

The project will examine the new pre-trial collaborative processes and their effect on the knowledge basis and ruling of the courts and generate recommendations and process support so the pre-trial collaboration can contribute to better knowledge basis.