Litigating the Climate Emergency : How Human Rights, Courts, and Legal Mobilization Can Bolster Climate Action

This book examines climate change lawsuits that are based on human rights law. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal doctrines, effects, and strategies associated with this kind of litigation, equipping readers with a global and interdisciplinary understanding of this type of legal action.

As the climate emergency intensifies, rights-based climate cases – litigation that is based on human rights law – are becoming an increasingly important tool for securing more ambitious climate action. This book is the first to offer a systematic analysis of the universe of these cases known as human rights and climate change (HRCC) cases. By combining theory, empirical documentation, and strategic debate among preeminent scholars and practitioners from around the world, the book captures the roots, legal innovations, empirical richness, impact, and challenges of this dynamic field of sociolegal practice. It looks specifically at the sociolegal origins and trajectory of HRCC cases, the legal innovations of this type of litigation, and the strategies and impacts of these cases. In doing so, this book equips litigators, researchers, practitioners, students, and concerned citizens with an understanding of an important method of holding governments and corporations accountable for climate harms. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.