Climate Law Blog

United Nations Human Rights Committee finds that Australia is violating human rights obligations towards Torres Strait Islanders for climate inaction By Maria Antonia Tigre   On September 23, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) delivered a landmark decision in Daniel Billy and others v Australia (Torres Strait Islanders Petition) finding that the Australian […]

Guest Commentary: Legal action in a time of climate crisis By Katie de Kauwe and Millie John-Pierre* On July 18, 2022, one of the hottest days on record in the UK, an equally ground-breaking judgment was handed down by the High Court of England and Wales in R (Friends of the Earth Ltd and Others) […]

By Marlies Hesselman* The first week of July 2022 brought on several major developments in climate litigation in the Netherlands, with possibly significant ramifications for a new type of global climate litigation. After landmark decisions in Urgenda and Shell, plaintiffs are asking a Dutch court to weigh in on a case that forms part of […]

By Maria Antonia Tigre While the United States Supreme Court yesterday delivered a major setback to the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in West Virginia. v. EPA, courts in other countries this week have issued decisions that demonstrate that courts worldwide remain an important forum for the potential advancement of climate rights. Youth […]

By Yumeno Grace Nishikawa, LLM* The Supreme Court of Japan may soon weigh in on a growing field of climate litigation in Japan against coal-fired power plants. On May 6, 2022, the Citizens’ Committee on the Kobe Coal-Fired Power Plant filed an appeal to Japan’s Supreme Court in Citizens’ Committee on the Kobe Coal-Fired Power […]

By Pedro Cisterna-Gaete and Maria Antonia Tigre In March 2022, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) jointly published Resolution No. 3/21, entitled Climate Emergency: Scope of Inter-American human rights obligations. The resolution’s purpose is to systematize the human rights […]

By Riccardo Luporini, Matteo Fermeglia, and Maria Antonia Tigre On February 8, 2022, the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic gave its final approval to the proposed constitutional law A.C.3156-B providing environmental protection amendments to Articles 9 and 41 of the Italian Constitution. The proposed constitutional bill, already approved by the Italian Senate, was […]

By Isabela Soares Bicalho, Gabriel Mantelli, Maria Antonia Tigre and Carmem Añon Brasolin On March 30, 2022, the Brazilian Supreme Court, the most important judicial body in the country, will hear seven cases, and all of them are environmental cases. This is an atypical situation in the Brazilian context: having a full day focused on […]

By Maria Antonia Tigre On March 15, 2022, the Full Federal Court of Australia, an intermediate appellate court, unanimously overturned the primary judge’s decision in Sharma and Others v. Minister for the Environment to impose a duty of care on the Minister for the Environment to mitigate climate harm to your people in considering whether […]

By Prof. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan, Phd* Background Countries around the world have increasingly adopted climate change laws over the last two decades. This is partially attributable to the dynamism in international climate negotiations but also a growing appreciation of the crucial role that national laws and policy measures play. Legislative instruments play a critical role […]