02 July 2026
Between and Beyond Regional Perspectives on Climate Change and Human Rights
Climate change has reached the dockets of (international) courts. The intersecting nature of this existential threat has led to a flurry of judicial action – somewhat paradoxically in the absence of meaningful political action. Yet, as case law is proliferating, the discussion about climate change in international adjudication has become highly specialized. Against this background, this contribution shares observations on the emergence of regional climate change law and calls for taking this regional perspective seriously by extending it beyond what is traditionally understood as inter-judicial dialogue. Continue reading >>
0 
01 July 2026
Learning from Each Other
The relationship between the world's regional human rights courts has undergone a quiet but consequential transformation over the past decade. What began as occasional, informal exchanges among judges and registries — encounters at conferences, the mutual citation of landmark judgments, coordinated submissions to United Nations human rights bodies — has matured into something more deliberate and structurally significant. This blog post examines that transformation from the perspective of the Inter-American Court by attending closely to the three dimensions in which cooperation actually operates. Continue reading >>
0
25 June 2026
Climate Justice Unlocked
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has just handed climate litigators in Latin America the most powerful tool they have ever had. Advisory Opinion OC-32/25 restructures the procedural architecture of climate litigation: inverting burdens of proof, authorising the presumption of causal links between state emissions and climate harm, and recognising satellite imagery as evidence that states must make accessible to victims. For organisations that have spent years fighting for communities on the front lines of the climate emergency, this is a transformative moment. Continue reading >>
0
23 June 2026
From Awas Tingni to Advisory Opinion 32/25
In July 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued Advisory Opinion 32/25 on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights: it recognized the right to a healthy climate as a standalone human right, declared a jus cogens norm prohibiting irreversible environmental harm, and affirmed the legal personhood of nature. These are not incremental developments. They are structural shifts in international environmental law, and they are the culmination of more than two decades of jurisprudential construction. This post traces that arc. Continue reading >>
0
19 June 2026
Climate Change and the Environment at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
The relationship between climate change and human rights has occupied international legal scholarship for more than two decades. Yet for much of that period, the relationship remained largely aspirational — acknowledged in soft-law instruments and scholarly commentary, but only partially operationalized by binding international adjudication. Advisory Opinion OC-32/25, adopted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR or the Court) on May 29, 2025, marks a decisive shift in that landscape. Continue reading >>
0
23 April 2026
A Jus Cogens Right to Climate Action
Phasing out fossil fuels is indispensable to meaningful climate action. Yet, significant legal barriers persist. Among the most formidable is the system of international investment law, particularly the mechanism of investor–state dispute settlement. One way to counter this type of legally entrenched climate obstruction is for States to clarify that their right to climate action is a new peremptory norm of international law, as per Article 64 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Continue reading >>
0
20 April 2026
The Question of Democracy Before the Inter-American Court
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been asked a question that could reshape the relationship between democracy and human rights in the Americas. In 2024, Guatemala submitted a request for an Advisory Opinion on the legal status of democracy under the Inter-American human rights system, in a regional context marked by democratic backsliding, institutional fragility, and growing tensions between elected governments and judicial institutions. The issue is not simply how to define democracy, but how democracy operates within the Inter-American human rights system and what obligations States have in relation to it. Continue reading >>
0
06 December 2025
Lost in Translation?
Judicial conversations and interactions take place in different settings – sometimes behind closed doors, sometimes out in the open. One open form of conversation is the use of comparative analysis in legal arguments. Focusing on comparative arguments in policy discussions on the right to a healthy environment within the Council of Europe, I will argue that comparative arguments are too often cursory and superficial and that calls for the transferral of elements from one human rights system to another tend to underestimate the complexities involved in such legal transplants. Continue reading >>
0
12 November 2025
One Step Back and Two Steps Forward
In May, after years of litigation, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm rendered its final decision in Lliuya v. RWE AG – a landmark case in which a Peruvian farmer sought to hold the German energy giant RWE financially responsible for measures protecting his property from a potential glacier flood. Although the Court rejected the claim in the end, the judgment has been celebrated as a “success without victory” due to the potential precedent effect in terms of corporate liability. The true significance of the Lliuya v. RWE decision lies not in its dismissal of the plaintiff’s claim, but in the court’s reasoning on extraterritoriality, causality, and preventive protection. Continue reading >>
0
16 September 2025
A Right to Defend the Environment
In a remarkable yet underexplored section, the IACtHR establishes a right to defend the environment, along with corresponding duties of States to protect environmental defenders. By recognizing environmental defenders as essential actors in democratic climate governance, the IACtHR’s advisory opinion advances a bold vision of environmental democracy that positions civic engagement as a vital precondition for legitimate and effective climate action. Continue reading >>
0