Justice KV Viswanathan said that Indian courts must increasingly rely on foreign jurisprudence when dealing with climate-linked commercial disputes. The theory that foreign jurisprudence is not welcome is over, he said. Justice Viswanathan was speaking on Saturday at the 6th Full Meeting of the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts (SIFoCC) in New Delhi during a hybrid session connected with a panel in Rio de Janeiro.
“What’s really emerging is that this problem has to be addressed collectively… It’s time now to say that light and knowledge should be welcomed from all sources,” he said, citing observations made in the Hamilton Law Lectures by Lord Hope. Justice Viswanathan said the climate crisis presents shared challenges that require judicial systems across jurisdictions to draw from each other rather than operate in isolation.
He said climate-related litigation was increasingly reshaping boundaries between private and public law. What were once conventional commercial disputes have begun to implicate constitutional principles and rights. “We have the fundamental rights. Courts cannot shy away from this. They will have to take the bull by the horns,” he observed.
