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121 Yale L.J. F. 115 (2011-2012)
Climate Justice and the Elusive Climate Tort

handle is hein.journals/yljfor121 and id is 115 raw text is: MAXINE BURKETT Climate Justice and the Elusive Climate Tort The Supreme Court's decision in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut (AEP)' closes another door for those most vulnerable to climate change. The corrective justice goals of tort law and the associated possibilities for redress - particularly vital to the most vulnerable -remain elusive due to the Court's restricted view of tort law's relevance to climate change. This Essay analyzes these climate justice implications ofAEP. The field of climate justice (CJ) is concerned with the intersection of race and/or indigeneity, poverty, and climate change. It also recognizes the direct kinship between social inequality and environmental degradation.' The term climate vulnerable, the subject of CJ, describes those communities or nation- states that have a particularly acute exposure to present and forecasted climatic changes. That increased vulnerability is due to either the nature and degree of climate impacts' forecast and/or the preexisting socioeconomic vulnerabilities that climate impacts amplify.' Underscoring the justice element, these most vulnerable populations are also the least responsible for the emissions that fuel anthropogenic climate change. The Essay argues that the common law nuisance claims rejected by the Court in AEP provide an important mechanism for the climate vulnerable to achieve corrective justice. Corrective justice is one of the most important goals of tort law because of its focus on the relationship between the tortfeasor and victim. While there are myriad interpretations of corrective justice theory and 1. 131 S. Ct. 2527 (2011). 2. See Maxine Burkett, Just Solutions to Climate Change: A Climate Justice Proposal for a Domestic Clean Development Mechanism, 56 BUFF. L. REv. 169,193 (2008). 3. See Maxine Burkett, Climate Reparations, 10 MELB. J. INT'LL. 509,513-14 (2009). 115

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