Across Europe, activists of all ages have taken to the streets to pressure their governments to take effective action against climate change. As domestic decision-makers failed them, they knocked at Strasbourg’s door. Three generations of right-holders turned to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR): senior women, young citizens, and […]
Blog Series
34 posts
The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case Verein KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland is a striking example of the Paris effect: the influence of the non-binding collective goals of the Paris Agreement (PA) on the interpretation of domestic constitutional law or international human rights law in […]
On April 9, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on three applications concerning the fight against climate change and the positive obligations of the signatory states of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in this respect. Two of the applications were declared inadmissible (Duarte Agostinho and […]
Incorporating International Climate Change Law to Maintain the ECHR’s Relevance Amid the Climate Crisis “Everything could be different – and yet there is almost nothing I can change.” This is, as Niklas Luhmann observed, the paradoxical blend that modern democracies impose on citizens, inviting either utopianism or fatalism. Disillusionment with the […]
The climate rulings of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) are landmark decisions. However, it is not obvious what they mean precisely for the State parties of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Have we witnessed, in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, a landslide victory for […]
On April 9, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued its first-ever findings concerning climate change. This post, part of a series on the ECtHR decisions, discusses Duarte Agostinho and Others v. 32 Member States. The case was brought by six youth applicants from Portugal, who alleged breaches […]
States’ extraterritorial jurisdiction was one of the hot topics decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Duarte Agostinho. Strictly speaking, the “lack of it” led the ECtHR to declare the complaint inadmissible with respect to all defendant States except Portugal. This finding is in line with previous […]
The much-awaited European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Grand Chamber rulings in three key climate cases have arrived, with two ruled inadmissible (Carême v. France and Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others) and one, brought by senior Swiss women, successful on the merits Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and […]