기후변화에 대한 개별 기업의 책임 ― 로열더치셸(Royal Dutch Shell plc.) 판결을 중심으로 ―

Climate litigation against individual companies are gradually becoming more active in foreign countries, with the Hague District Court of the Netherlands recently imposing legal obligation on a private enterprise for the first time in the world. Considering domestic laws and litigation practices of Republic of Korea, it may be theoretically possible to request a reduction in carbon emissions and maintain an abstract omission order, but asking for liability for carbon emissions is unlikely to be accepted because there are problems such as causal relationships, allocation of responsibilities and illegality. Regarding the illegality of greenhouse gas emissions, the most important requirement for recognizing tort liability, the basis for liability for individual companies may be a regulatory standard under public law, but questions may arise about the legitimacy of regulating individual companies under public law. Even if regulatory legislation is made by the parliament with democratic legitimacy, it cannot be concluded that it is necessarily in line with the public interest, so even if an individual company's violation of regulations is recognized as illegal and liability for damages is recognized, it needs to be considered separately. Lastly, with regard to the possibility of judicial judgment on the issue of responsibility for climate change, although there are many foreign judgments that ruled climate cases are nonjusticiable because it presents a political question, since climate litigation may have greater room for the judiciary to supplement incomplete social preference functions in the political process than other tort litigation, such as representing the interests of future generations, the judiciary may need a more active attitude toward climate change issues in the future.