Long-term investment protection instead of animal welfare: New transition periods for the ban on fully slatted floors
In a 2024 decision, Austria’s Constitutional Court (VfGH) held that the 17-year transition period for phasing out unstructured fully slatted pens in pig farming was unconstitutional, due to disproportionate prioritization of investment protection over animal welfare and unjustified unequal treatment between new and existing facilities.
To address this, the national legislator passed an amendment to the Animal Welfare Act in May 2025. The revised law introduces a general transition period until 1 June 2034 for existing facilities, and a 16-year transition for facilities that were newly built or subject to structural measures on the floor or pens before 1 June 2034. The 16-year period is measured from the completion of the construction work. However, the new regulation continues to raise constitutional concerns. The extended timelines still appear to favour investment interests over animal protection and result in inconsistent treatment of new and existing facilities.
Saúl Luciano Lliuya v. RWE (OLG Hamm): Civil liability of major emitters for the consequences of the climate crisis
Saúl Luciano Lliuya, a farmer and mountain guide from Peru, had sued the German energy company RWE in civil proceedings before German courts. He argued that significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from RWE power plants had contributed to climate change and thus to the melting of glaciers in Peru. This would have increased the risk of flooding to his house, which is located under a glacial lake at the foot of the Andes. The melting would pose an acute threat, for the mitigation of which the plaintiff has incurred or would incur costs, which RWE should partially reimburse. The calculated share (0.47%) of the total costs is the same percentage as RWE's estimated contribution to global industrial GHG emissions since the beginning of industrialization.
The judgment of the German Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Hamm on May 28, 2025 is described as a milestone: Although the court rejected the appeal of Saúl Luciano Lliuya from Peru against the Essen Regional Court's ruling (2016), it could provide a tailwind for climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies worldwide. The court affirmed the application of Sec. 1004 of the German Civil Code to a private company's responsibility in climate-related damage. A similar legal basis to this ruling exists in other countries around the world. The ruling shows a way forward for the justiciability of civil law claims in connection with the consequences of climate change.