@article{2024:winter:climate_pr,
title = {Climate Protection before the European Court of Human Rights: The KlimaSeniorinnen and Duarte Agostinho Cases in Perspective},
year = {2024},
note = {The European Court of Human Rights has largely developed its
interpretation of human rights in environmental cases addressing
actual harm from close-by sources and linear chains of causation. In
the KlimaSeniorinnen and Duarte Agostinho cases, the multi-causal,
distant and long-term causation of climate change and its effects
inspired the Court to develop its case law further by drawing on the
conception that regards the European Convention on Human Rights as a
living instrument. The Court introduced two innovations – accepting
a collective right to action and establishing an ambitious set of
positive obligations on states – but it also rejected two other
claims, namely opening up the standing of individuals to the
generalised concerns of younger or older generations and extending
jurisdiction to the causation of transborder effects of greenhouse gas
(GHG)emissions. This article analyses these doctrinal moves by placing
them within the context of a wider range of doctrinal options. The
focus is on the transnational reach of human rights, the locus standi
of individuals and associations, the interference with rights and the
positive obligations to take mitigating measures. Particular attention
is paid to how it is possible to determine a state’s share in
causing and reducing emissions. Besides these doctrinal issues, the
article touches on general aspects of the Court’s function as were
raised in a dissenting opinion.},
journal = {Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht / Heidelberg Journal of International Law},
pages = {457--498},
author = {Winter, Gerd},
volume = {84},
number = {3}
}