Mapping the Whole of the Moon: An Analysis of the Role of Human Rights in Climate Litigation (original) (raw)
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climate change litigation is complex due to the difficulty of proving the causal linkage between the adverse effects of climate change and a violation of human rights resulting thereof in front of a court. Recent rights -based climate change litigation has shown that the transboundary nature of both fields as well as the fact that the most severe consequences of climate change will only be felt in the future pose serious challenges to the judiciary as it is a mechanism based on evidence and is not always capable of assessing damage occurring on other states' territory. This dissertation seeks to specify how human rights arguments can be used successfully in climate change litigation to make an impact on a State's conduct in relation to its global warming policy. Building on the case of Urgenda Foundation v. The State of the Netherlands, it asks whether the judgement can be considered a decisive step towards effective protection of human rights in climate change litigation or if it was rather the surrounding circumstances of the case that made it successful. Based on the Urgenda case documents, other recent case law in the field of rights -based climate change litigation and a review of literature, a conclusion will be drawn as to which factors play a role in the success of human and fundamental rights being used in climate change litigation. Analysis has demonstrated that multiple factors act a part in whether human rights can be used successfully to impose a more ambitious approach to climate change policy making on governments. Results indicate that there is no certain pattern as to when a rights-based approach will be successful. Even if there was a constitutional basis for a right to a stable climate, multiple factors such as the causality of action and damage, the liberty of the court and the legal standing of plaintiffs can still lead to a failure of the claim. Rights-based climate change litigation is a highly vibrant field that bares huge potential if used correctly but at the same time harbors risks not to be underestimated.
The use of human rights arguments in climate change litigation and its limitations
Strategic Studies, 2020
Her research focuses on the relationship between the environment and human rights, with a particular focus on climate change and the rights of future generations. Chiara Liguori is Policy Advisor on Environment and Human Rights at Amnesty International, leading the organisation's policy and strategy development on climate change and human rights. She previously worked as Caribbean researcher at Amnesty and as human rights officer for the UN in Haiti and Comoros. She is particularly interested on climate-related migration and displacement, which she is studying in her MA on Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies at the University of London.
CLIMATE JUSTICE: CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
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Litigation has presented itself as a serious means to vindicate normative commitments about climate change by forcing governments to review their policy priorities. Today, the use of such litigation is not limited to the domestic arena. International law now provides the new principal avenue for such litigation. Two litigation strategies stand out: obligations strategy and rights strategy. Obligations strategy consists of bestowing an erga omnes character to existing obligations regarding the protection of the global environment, thereby providing standing for a non-injured party before international courts. Rights strategy, on the other hand, significantly increases in practice. It consists in the invocation, before national and international courts, of remedies for environmental damages through the legal categories of human rights law.This article sheds light on the potential and limits of these litigation strategies in international law. The argument builds on the specific evolut...