19 October 2024
How the judgment by the German Federal Constitutional Court on the German debt brake entrenches climate injustice
Germany, as a major greenhouse gas emitter, has a critical obligation to support developing countries affected by climate change; however, its adherence to the constitutional “debt brake” undermines this responsibility and exacerbates global inequalities. Continue reading >>
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27 June 2024
A Global South Perspective on Loss and Damage Litigation
In June 2024, delegates undertook two-week-long negotiations at the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference. These meetings concerned the modalities of the newly instituted Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund and the provision of financial assistance to developing countries. In this piece, we reflect on the future interactions between the L&D Fund and litigations regarding L&D. We argue that these two phenomena must be seen as having a synergistic relation, effectively benefitting the Global South. Continue reading >>
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20 December 2023
Warum wir einen Verbotsvertrag für fossile Brennstoffe brauchen
Während der COP 28 Konferenz schlossen sich Palau, Kolumbien, Samoa und Nauru offiziell der Forderung nach einem Vertrag über die Nichtverbreitung fossiler Brennstoffe an. Die Ankündigungen erfolgten in Dubai, während viele Organisationen der Zivilgesellschaft und Regierungsdelegationen sich noch für einen COP-Beschluss zum Ausstieg aus der Förderung fossiler Brennstoffe einsetzten. Diese eigenständige Vertragsinitiative, die vom Europäischen Parlament, der WHO sowie von zahlreichen Städten und wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen unterstützt wird, wird von 12 Staaten angeführt, von denen 11 Inselstaaten sind, die am stärksten von der Klimakrise betroffen sind. Wie ich darlegen werde, ist es in der Tat eine gute Idee, einen neuen Vertrag über das Verbot der Förderung fossiler Brennstoffe auszuhandeln, auch wenn sich einige Öl, Gas und Kohle exportierende Länder weigern, daran teilzunehmen. Continue reading >>06 July 2022
Ecuador’s June 2022 Multi-pronged Social Outburst
For 18 days in June, the Ecuadorian society has descended into chaos. What started as a strike led by indigenous communities mutated into a multi-pronged social outburst that threatened the constitutional order as a whole. While the core reason for the widespread discontent lies in the systematic exclusion of a vast majority of the Ecuadorian population from basic social systems, the resent crisis in Ecuador posts a more comprehensive alert. Continue reading >>
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01 June 2022
Travelling Courts and Strategic Visitation
It is not very often that an on-site meeting of a German higher regional court makes its way to the front pages of international news media. Yet, the reported visit of judges and court-appointed experts from the OLG Hamm, one of 24 higher regional courts in Germany, has achieved just that when the nine-person group traveled to the Andean city of Huaraz in Peru in late May 2022. This was after all no ordinary visit. They had come to see with their own eyes whether Saúl Luciano Lliuya’s house is threatened by outburst floods from Lake Palcacocha. We argue that this form of “strategic visitation”, similar to strategic litigation, might not result in a judicial breakthrough but holds important symbolic and political significance. Continue reading >>27 May 2022
Revitalizing the Right to Abortion in Kenya
On 24 March 2022, the Kenya High Court delivered a momentous ruling on the right to abortion. The decision sets a tempo in safeguarding women’s rights not only in Kenya but across the world. It is yet another great contribution from the Global South to global constitutional debate, reminding us that judges should be ready and willing to deploy their interpretive armory when protecting rights. Continue reading >>26 March 2022
‘Don’t Look Up’, Look ‘South’
There is no doubt: climate law is about to become one of the most important issues in comparative constitutional and international law. The institutional and legal questions are tricky, the number of cases exploding, and, more importantly: the stakes are high. On the very day we kicked off this blog debate the world was hit by the news of an “impossible” and “unthinkable” temperature surge in the Arctic and Antarctic, with climate journalists stating in shock that “Antarctic climatology has been rewritten”. On the day this blog debate concluded we learned of an “unprecedented sixth mass coral bleaching event” in the Great Barrier Reef, with scientists demanding immediate action yet again. Continue reading >>
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24 March 2022
As the Lungs of the Earth Dry Out, Climate Litigation Heats Up
The Amazon Forest – el pulmón del mundo – has been at the center of four recent rights-based climate lawsuits in the region. Interestingly, the existence of solid legal grounds for environmental litigation has not stopped petitioners and courts from using some degree of creativity in shaping new rights. I argue that any evaluation of the potential benefits and impacts of (new) rights strategies must consider their limitations in setting clear legal boundaries and achieving immediate political change. Nonetheless, rights-based climate lawsuits play an important symbolic role, as they recognize the vulnerability of certain groups to climate change. Continue reading >>
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23 March 2022
Protecting Whose Children?
One year ago, the First Senate of the German Federal Constitutional Court (GFCC) has issued a landmark decision on the rights of future generations and their (legal) entitlement to solidarity. This blog post compares this decision to the 2018 ruling of the Colombian Supreme Court (CS) that was also concerned with the rights of future generations. I argue that while the idea of solidarity with people threatened by climate change is central to both judgments, the courts have taken very different approaches to whom this solidarity extends to. Continue reading >>
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21 March 2022
Comparative Climate Litigation in North-South Perspective
If the catastrophe we face is one “for the world and humanity”, isn’t it time to rethink some of our core beliefs regarding institutional roles and the role of the judiciary? If current institutional arrangements fail when addressing the global climate catastrophe, aren’t we in dire need of alternative approaches when thinking about the role of law and courts? We as editors of the forthcoming blog debate neither can nor want to provide answers to these questions here. Instead, we argue that we should look to the Global South for lessons when reflecting on the role of law and institutions in tackling the climate crisis. Continue reading >>
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