Supreme Court judge justice BV Nagarathna on Saturday described environmental law as “hot law”, explaining that it operates in real time, grappling with uncertainty, evolving science, and the risk of irreversible harm, unlike traditional legal fields that adjudicate past conduct. Environmental law is “hot law” dealing with risk and uncertainty, says Justice Nagarathna, urging courts to adopt precautionary, flexible approaches Delivering the Justice SB Sinha Memorial Lecture at the National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi, justice Nagarathna said environmental law is “concerned not only with regulating past conduct, but with governing risk, preventing harm, and managing uncertainty”. Drawing on the work of legal scholar Elizabeth Fisher, the judge explained that environmental law is “hot” because it is forward-looking and precautionary, rather than merely corrective. Courts, she said, are often required to act before scientific certainty emerges, making decisions in a dynamic space shaped by competing considerations of science, economics, technology, ethics, and politics. “Scientific knowledge in this field is provisional and evolving; what is considered safe at one point may later …