Kelleher, Orla (2022) Incorporating climate justice into legal reasoning: shifting towards a risk-based approach to causation in climate litigation. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 13 (1). pp. 1-27. ISSN 1759-7188

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Abstract

This article examines whether the widely accepted political theory contributions on fair burden sharing, harm avoidance and a just distribution of the remaining carbon budget can (and ought to) be incorporated or reflected in judicial reasoning on causation in systemic rights-based climate litigation. It explores whether a wider use of the European Court of Human Rights’ lenient approach to causation at the national level could help overcome some of the causal difficulties that might otherwise excuse wealthy developed country governments that are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights from responsibility. The article also considers how rights-based arguments might be a way of operationalizing climate justice in judicial reasoning in systemic rights-based climate cases in Europe.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	climate litigation; causation; risk-based approach; climate justice; fair burden sharing; ECHR; Urgenda v Netherlands; Family Farmers and Greenpeace v Germany; Neubauer and others v Germany; Friends of the Irish Environment v Ireland; Klimaseniorinnen v Switzerland;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Law
Item ID:	18863
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2022.01.12
Depositing User:	Orla Kelleher
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2024 11:33
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Human Rights and the Environment
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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