Presented by the ANU Centre for Public International and Public Law (CIPL) and ANU Law Reform and Social Justice, The Honourable Justice Rachel Pepper (BA '92, LLB (Hons) '94) delivered a seminar, 'Costs in Public Interest Climate Change Litigation', on 11 October 2019.

Justice Pepper explored how the possibility of an adverse costs order can have a significant deterrent on the bringing of litigation in this lunchtime seminar. These costs can be sizable in climate change litigation, which is often novel and where the competing legal issues typically involve complex scientific questions necessitating the provision of costly evidence.

The chilling effect of an adverse costs order is all the more acute in public interest litigation - where an applicant (who tends to be a not-for-profit community group or an individual) before the court may gain no direct personal benefit from the litigation.