9 - Trends in Judicial Engagement with Science: A Comparative Assessment

Summary

This chapter provides a comprehensive classification of the adjudicatory techniques identified in previous analytical chapters. As no unified approach manifests in the adjudicatory landscape with respect to handling scientific knowledge, the chapter discerns two parallel trends in the scientific engagement of major international fora. Certain practices impede or even preclude the intrusion of science into adjudicatory assessment and thereby downplay the role of science in the judicial inquiry; while others aim to incorporate scientific knowledge in the judicial analysis. The chapter provides a typology of judicial techniques that serve either to downplay science or to integrate it in the judicial analysis in terms of the framing of disputes, the process of fact-finding, the causal inquiry, and the standard of review. The comparative analysis also includes references to quasi-adjudicatory solutions of the UN Compensation Commission, and the US – Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal. It also addresses good practices from domestic climate change litigation case law and US toxic tort jurisprudence to provide good practices of conducting a science-intensive judicial inquiry.