As the climate crisis escalates, activists and environmental organisations worldwide are suing governments and corporations for failing to address its causes. This research combines doctrinal analysis with practice tracing techniques to understand how these lawsuits emerge and what legal and societal changes they bring about.

Several important developments in rights-based climate litigation have occurred in recent years. Cases such as Urgenda v. Netherlands, Leghari v. Pakistan, Demanda Generaciones Futuras v. Minambiente (Colombia), Juliana v. United States, and the Philippines Commission on Human Rights’ National Inquiry on Climate Change have broken new ground in applying human rights law to climate change. At the international level, the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have issued groundbreaking decisions on climate cases, and advisory proceedings on climate change and human rights are pending before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. While these developments affirm the importance of rights-based climate litigation, more research and analysis are needed to further elucidate this domain in both legal and policy contexts.

The findings of this research are starting to reveal the impact of rights-based climate litigation on socio-political processes and its contribution to a growing transnational movement that leverages human rights for climate justice. By shedding light on how climate litigation emerges and generates change, this project aims to inform and empower litigants, courts, policymakers and advocates working to advance human rights and combat the climate crisis

Partners

• Sébastien Jodoin, Faculty of Law, McGill University
• Annalisa Savaresi, Faculty of Law, University of Stirling
• Alofipo So’o alo Fleur Ramsay, Birkbeck College, University of London
• Maria Antonia Tigre, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia University
• Jorge Viñuales, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge