A Rights Turn in Climate Change Litigation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4610074
AutoresJ Peel (0000-0002-2880-169X, The University of Melbourne, autor de correspondencia), Hari M Osofsky (0000-0002-9439-2943, Pennsylvania State University)
Año2018
Volumen7
Número1
Páginas37-67
Fecha de publicación2018-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTransnational Environmental Law (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2047-1025 • E-ISSN: 2047-1033
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s2047102517000292
OpenAlexW2779655092
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas68
Referencias citadas26

In 2015, a Pakistani court in the case ofLeghariv.Federation of Pakistanmade history by accepting arguments that governmental failures to address climate change adequately violated petitioners' rights. This case forms part of an emerging body of pending or decided climate change-related lawsuits that incorporate rights-based arguments in several countries, including the Netherlands, the Philippines, Austria, South Africa, and the United States (US). These decisions align with efforts to recognize the human rights dimensions of climate change, which received important endorsement in the Paris Agreement. The decisions also represent a significant milestone in climate change litigation. Although there have been hundreds of climate-based cases around the world over the past two decades - especially in the US - past and much of the ongoing litigation focuses primarily on statutory interpretation avenues. Previous efforts to bring human rights cases have also failed to achieve formal success. The new cases demonstrate an increasing trend for petitioners to employ rights claims in climate change lawsuits, as well as a growing receptivity of courts to this framing. This 'rights turn' could serve as a model or inspiration for rights-based litigation in other jurisdictions, especially those with similarly structured law and court access

Climate change · Geography · Human rights · Petitioner · Political science · Statutory interpretation · Statutory law · Supreme court · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Environmental law and policy · Human Rights and Development · Law