Human activities have substantially contributed to climate change, largely through actions and supply chains of multinationals that increase global carbon emissions. As a result, the pressure on the private sector in the fight against climate change is rising, and multinationals specifically are attracting a great deal of attention. In addition, slow progress in climate change policymaking has led to different strategies to push states towards more ambitious climate action, one being the use of national and international courts, with the hope that they would fill the regulatory void and compel states to act. Many of these claims are also relevant to climate refugees, either directly (e.g., when interpreting their status/standing) or indirectly (e.g., in the case of causation). This article outlines the link between climate change and rights protection, recognizes the significance of climate litigation, and investigates the power of current legal mechanisms available to address violations of environmental rights. It deals with the current trends in vertical (private individuals vs. state) and horizontal (private individuals vs. companies) rights-based litigation and jurisprudence development.
To assess whether and up to which level legal rulings are altering the normative meaning of human rights concepts, particularly the interpretation and articulation of the environmental aspects of existing human rights, the impact of lawsuits before the national courts of the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as the European Court of Human Rights, will be analysed. The main criteria for case selection are significant legal impact and a call for action against climate change. Building on the right to a healthy environment, the paper examines actors, and particularly non-state actors, i.e., multinational companies, their role, obligations within the pollution cycle, and accountability for climate-related displacement. A comparative approach will help to understand how different countries approach a similar problem and whether such an analysis could provide valuable conclusions for future litigation and policymaking.
The research followed an interdisciplinary approach, adopting a doctrinal and theoretical methodology and relying on secondary sources. Based on insights from the human rights field, legal studies, and political science, the paper argues that climate litigation strengthens the protection of human rights, and consequently contributes to achieving adaptation-mitigation commitments by states and businesses.
