The Right to a Healthy Environment and Climate Litigation: A Mutually Supportive Relation?

Abstract

The right to a healthy environment is recognised in the law of several states and in some regional treaties. Litigants all over the world have increasingly relied on this right to demand the protection of a host of environmental interests. This trend is expanding and as of late has started to affect also climate litigation. This article scrutinises the extent to which the right to a healthy environment has been invoked in the growing body of human rights-based climate litigation. It then provides an in-depth analysis of rights-based litigation that has occurred to date, with the aim to establish the extent to which the right to a healthy environment has furthered the prospects of applicants and, conversely, the extent to which climate litigation has bolstered the recognition of the right to a healthy environment.