Stephanie Nitsch

Tenure Track Professor: Comparative Private Law with Focus on Private Environmental Law

Head of the Research Center for Environmental Law

Member of the Environment and Climate Research Hub (ECH)

Schottenbastei 10-16 (Juridicum building)
1010 Wien

Staircase I, 5th floor, Room R528

T: +43-1-4277-351 26

stephanie.nitsch@univie.ac.at

Focus of Research

The role of private law in environmental protection: Can private law support supra-individual interests?
- climate resilience: challenges under property and real estate law, research project: Mainstreaming Adaptation in Austria: Public and Private Law Pathways (MAPP)
- environmental liability law (e.g., PFAS litigation, microplastics litigation, climate change litigation, supply chain responsibility), research project: From Lab to Litigation
- liability in context of climate protests and activism
- legal remedies in cases of incorrect sustainability information (‘greenwashing’), research project: Green and Tempting? Combatting Greenwashing in Consumer Marketing
Private International Law

Curriculum Vitae

List of Presentations

List of Publications

Teaching

Teaching

Consultation hours

Consultation hours are held by individual arrangement.

To make an appointment, please send an e-mail to stephanie.nitsch@univie.ac.at

Team

student assistant:

Johanna Bergthaler (johanna.bergthaler@univie.ac.at)

former team members:

student assistants:

Catherine Liko
Livia Rungg

teaching project: VO Climate law in intra- and interdisciplinary dialog (2024W)

tutors:

Leokadia Grolmus, BA
Jasmin Lang, BA
Albert Pranger, BEd

Mitarbeiter*innen

Studienassistentin:

Johanna Bergthaler (johanna.bergthaler@univie.ac.at)

Ehemalige Mitarbeiter*innen:

Studienassistent*innen:

Catherine Liko
Livia Rungg

Lehrprojekt: Vorlesung "Klimarecht im intra- und interdisziplinären Dialog" (WS 2024/25)

Lektor*innen:

Leokadia Grolmus, BA
Jasmin Lang, BA
Albert Pranger, BEd

From Lab to Litigation: Translating Scientific Evidence to the Court

Funded by the Environment and Climate Research Hub

Lead PI: Ass.-Prof. Dr. Stephanie Nitsch, Tenure Track Professor: Comparative Private Law with Focus on Private Environmental Law, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna

Co-PI: Ass.-Prof. Dr. Nils Güttler, Tenure Track Professor: History of the Natural Sciences, Department of History, University of Vienna

Project Summary

Translating science to law presents several significant challenges. The project seeks to understand how scientific evidence has, or has not, been incorporated into legal practice, thereby fostering an in-depth and collaborative approach to horizontal environmental litigation. In these cases, based on private law causes of action, plaintiffs – many of them supported by NGOs and social movements –, claim that industry corporations are obliged to mitigate emissions or pollution, compensate for costs of adaptation and compensate for damage to property, economic loss but also harm to human health.

By interweaving our expertise in comparative private law and the history of science, the project seeks to investigate the mechanisms through which evidence from the environmental sciences has been presented and evaluated in court proceedings since the 1960s. As it compiles and analyses key legal cases – both from the present and the recent past –, it identifies the obstacles that have hindered the effective use of scientific knowledge and will highlight best practice examples from various jurisdictions. Broadening our knowledge in these matters is relevant for the green transition and particularly in current cases of climate change litigation or litigation related to environmental pollution, such as microplastics or PFAS litigation.