Research project
Litigation in Name of the Public Interest
How do interest groups in the Netherlands use strategic litigation to bring about political, social or legal change, and how does this strategy compare to other, more classical, ways to influence policy?
- Duration
- 2024 - 2026
- Contact
- Rowie Stolk
- Funding
- KIEM
Aim
The ‘Litigation in Name of the Public Interest’ project aims to learn how interest organisations in the Netherlands use the courts to realise political, social or legal change. The project examines the nature and size of this phenomenon and how strategic court litigation relates to other classical strategies for influencing policy.
Interdisciplinary research
Two faculties are involved in this project: Leiden Law School and the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. The project combines legal, political science and public administration insights to better understand the strategic use of litigation by interest groups and examines the implications of this development in relation to democratic constitutional rights.
Summary
Interest groups increasingly seem to be using strategic litigation to achieve political, social or legal change. Examples of this trend include Urgenda's climate case, Mobilisation for the Environment's nitrogen cases, and the Dutch Council for Refugees’ court cases on the quality of asylum emergency reception. These strategic litigation interest groups and their lawsuits are at the interface between politics and law. This research project combines legal, political science and public administration insights to gain a better understanding of the nature and extent of this phenomenon and how litigation relates to other, more classical, strategies for influencing policy. To this end, a survey is being conducted among Dutch interest groups. The survey instrument is being used that was previously developed for the Comparative Interest Group Survey Project in 2018. However, the questions have now been formulated so that they are more geared to the legal context in the Netherlands in which interest groups do or don’t seek access to the courts. The project therefore takes a unique longitudinal and interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenon of strategic litigation by interest groups, and makes an important first systematic and empirical contribution to further thinking by examining the democratic and constitutional implications.