Legal Governmentality - governing climate activism through criminal law and human rights in Europecore
LeGo · Horizon Europe grant · 2026-02-01–2031-01-31
EC contribution
Total cost
Beneficiaries
About the data
Source: CORDIS (official EU open data), Horizon Europe. Framework HORIZON · call ERC-2025-STG · scheme HORIZON-ERC · topic ERC-2025-STG. CORDIS record →
Objective
Since 2018, the European climate movement has embraced civil disobedience to denounce government inaction on climate mitigation. Governments increasingly respond with criminalization of climate civil disobedience, while NGOs, activists and transnational institutions (e.g. Amnesty Intl., the UN) defend it. Criminalization and defense of civil disobedience highlight a growing tension between state efforts to restrict political protests (often by treating protests as a matter of security), and transnational efforts to legitimize protests (usually treating them as a matter of rights). LeGo advances our understanding of criminalization and rights-based defense of climate civil disobedience in the UK (common law system) and in Germany (civil law system). Both countries are at the center of a growing repression of climate civil disobedience. To date, there is little understanding of how criminalization and defense of climate civil disobedience affect activists and the climate movement. The main research objective is to examine how the use of criminal law and human rights discourses shapes the legal consciousness and conduct of climate activists. To this end, the project examines criminal trials against climate activists; state efforts to pass new laws and mobilize criminal codes and security frames to prosecute activists; efforts of transnational actors and institutions to counter criminalization; and climate activists’ perceptions of and responses to criminalization and rights-based defense. LeGo adopts a mixed method approach drawing on methods and concepts from political and legal anthropology and geography, social movements and mobilization studies, and critical legal studies. Theoretically, the project advances our understanding of how environmental activism is governed through the uses of law and rights. Empirically, the project highlights the consequences of criminalization on the European climate movement, (trans)national climate politics, and the rule of law.
Beneficiaries (1)
| Organisation | Country | Role | EC contribution | SME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNIVERSITAET BERN | CH | coordinator | €1,499,875 |
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