What’s in a name? People are scared of litigation - here’s why we’re standing by it.

We often get advised that the word “litigation” will scare away potential donors and partners.  

“Litigation is too assertive”, we’re told, and “legal action makes people nervous.” Friends and colleagues both inside and outside of the sector have suggested that we change our organisation's name from Conservation-Litgiation.org to something more palatable and neutral.

We’ve debated this internally many times. If anything, the generous feedback has left us more resolved than ever: We can’t be scared of taking legal action.

Some other organisations have stepped-back from legal action, and many groups focus on “soft”, non-conflictual approaches to engaging polluters and deforesters – such as voluntary agreements, certification standards, incentives and promoting improved standards.  

These are  – of course– important. Public policy involves a mix of “carrots and sticks”: Incentives and cooperation can and have driven change. In contrast, excessive regulation and enforcement can be inefficient for both business and the public.

Yet an over-reliance on “soft” measures also reflects the gradual “hollowing out” of the State, and risks collusion between the State and industry.  

The worst environmental offenders will not respond to gentle nudging.  We need to be ready to hold them accountable – especially when the State and existing more gentle approaches fail. 

For Conservation-Litigation.org, this means actively paving the way for assertive, strategic legal action.  It means thinking actively about the legal and scientific details of how to hold offenders meaningfully responsible for the harms they cause.  And it means strategically identifying opportunities, sectors and defendants where we think cases can drive change.

Legal action does involve risks, and we understand why some shy away from it.  We do our best to understand those risks in context. Importantly, we recognise that much of our work takes place in the safety of our homes and offices, away from the countries where the legal action is taking place, so we work actively with our network to actively evaluate and mitigate a range of security, legal and financial risks.

So while we understand that litigation may not be the right course of action every single time, it is an important cog in the growing, evolving ecosystem of responses to environmental harm. In essence, it all comes down to one principle: if you break it, you fix it. And legal action is one way to force those that harm our environment to take action to remedy it.