Wednesday 22 March 2023

Webinar on Climate Change and the ECHR

On 23 March, Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law is organizing a webinar entitled 'The Climate Docket at the European Court of Human Rights'. The webinar will discuss the cases on climate change currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights, and the main legal issues raised by these cases. 

Here is a description of the webinar:

''In yet another manifestation of the “turn to rights” in climate litigation, a dozen cases seeking to spell out Member States’ obligations with regard to climate change mitigation and adaptation under the European Convention on Human Rights have been brought before the European Court of Human Rights in recent years. These cases raise complex novel issues of human rights law. They are likely to make an indelible mark on the international legal landscape, notwithstanding their impact on ongoing domestic climate litigation efforts and, overall, on climate policies across Europe and beyond. To shed light on these developments, the Sabin Center’s Peer Review Network on Global Climate Litigation is hosting a half-day Conference on March 23, 2023. The Conference will include a general overview of the “Climate Docket” of the European Court of Human Rights as well as a detailed discussion of the three cases to be heard by the Court at the end of March 2023 (Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Other StatesCarême v. France, and KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland). Furthermore, we will debate the variety of legal issues they involve, including the complainants’ victim status under the Convention, the attribution of responsibility, the legal standing of NGOs, the justiciability of “climate harm,” and extraterritoriality. We will hear from a wide range of perspectives thanks to the participation of leading academics, practitioners, activists, and members of the international judiciary.''