I. Framing the issue: why such a question (climate change and public law)?
When we proposed to our contributors to undertake the present dossier, we were well aware that climate change is not by itself a legal phenomenon. Yet we strongly believe that the law is nevertheless somewhat relevant in respect of the possible causes of climate change and might also play a central role in the efforts to mitigate and deal with it in the long run. Given that we are public lawyers after all, we naturally focused on the potential of public law concepts and instruments, where they could be mobilized to support climate change mitigation and adaptation and conversely, where public law might effectively hinder such mitigation/adaptation…
