The Problem of Temporal Synchronization in Climate Change. Theoretical and Comparative Interplays in the Light of Litigation

The article deals with two discourses on time in climate litigation. After tracing the most traditional discourse, especially with regard to future generations, it explores the discourse of temporal synchronization, mainly drawing on the work of Hartmut Rosa. It then analyzes three landmark climate judgments through this lens: Neubauer of the German Federal Constitutional Court, Klimaseniorinnen of the European Court of Human Rights and Lozano Barragán of the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice. It illustrates the elaboration of doctrinal concepts such as intertemporal rights, associational standing and intergenerational burden-sharing, and rights of nature, considering them as figures of resynchronization. It also examines the institutional remedies developed by the courts and confronts various democratic approaches with the synchronization thesis. In the concluding part, it combines the theoretical reflections with a realistic assessment of the effects of the judgments and outlines a kind of chronopolitics compatible with “futurity”.