Litigation as a Strategy for Environmental Movements Questioned: An Examination of Bergama and Artvin-Cerattepe Struggles

Abstract

Litigation is being increasingly used by environmental movements in pursuit of justice as a last resort. The environmentally harmful actions of transnational corporations in addition to the incapability of international organizations and the unresponsiveness of states to inhibit this damage are pushing citizens to courts. However, courts’ ability to address environmental injustices remains dubious. This article problematizes the efficacy of litigation for environmental movements to achieve long-term justice by examining Bergama and Artvin-Cerattepe movements from Turkey, through a case-study approach and borrowing from grounded theory. It discusses the reasons why litigation may provide short-term gains for environmental movements but is of limited effectiveness for pursuing change in the long-term, such as non-implementation of court decisions, policy changes impacting the execution of judgements, insufficient sentences not offering enough deterrence for future, and power imbalances between litigants impacting the courtroom etc.