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A Timely Intervention: Dutch Court declares that the State has Positive Duties under the European Convention on Human Rights to tackle Climate Change

Jamie McLoughlin - 23rd October 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

The Court of Appeal in the Netherlands has just issued a landmark judgment concerning environmental human rights and climate change. It has found the Dutch State to be in breach of its positive obligations under Articles 2 and 8 of the ECHR by failing to adopt a more ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The judgment […]

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Courts and Climate Change II: Appeals Court Upholds Landmark Ruling in Dutch Climate Case

Anneloes Hoff - 18th October 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

The Hague Court of Appeals has upheld its human rights-based landmark ruling in the historic Climate Case that orders the Dutch government to accelerate its reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The decision came one day after the world’s leading climate scientists called for “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” in order […]

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OxHRH

Justice Kennedy’s Mixed Environmental Legacy Turns Tragic

Nicholas Stump - 25th September 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, a 1988 Reagan appointee, will leave behind a mixed environmental law legacy. Best known to the public as a crucial swing vote on issues regarding same-sex marriage and abortion rights, Kennedy’s influence on environmental law was no less impactful, as he sided both for and against ecological and public health […]

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OxHRH

State Policy or Individual Right: The Recent Development of Environmental Protection in China

Zijun Zhao - 21st August 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

In late June 2018, the Chinese State Council released the three-year action plan to ‘win the battle for blue skies‘, which, among other recent legislative and judicial development in environmental protection, is an illustration of the Constitutional Amendment on 11 March 2018, which includes ‘to direct and administer […] environmental development’ as one of the […]

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Legal Actions Against Mountain Valley Pipeline Underscore Grassroots Activism’s Importance

Nicholas Stump - 9th August 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a 303-mile U.S. interstate project currently under construction that would transport fracked natural gas from northern West Virginia through southwest Virginia. The MVP is highly controversial due to its immediate Appalachian environmental and human community impacts, in addition to its exacerbation of climate change. Numerous legal actions have therefore […]

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 Parent Company Liability for Human Rights Abuses in the UK? We Need Clarity

Dalia Palombo - 24th July 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

The liability of parent companies for the extraterritorial human rights abuses committed by their subsidiaries has increasingly become a critical topic for both corporate and human rights litigators. The absence of national and international laws comprehensively addressing this issue created a space for creative arguments for and against holding parent companies of multinational groups incorporated […]

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OxHRH

The Second Generation Challenges of the Right to Development (II): Is there an International Duty to Cooperate towards the Realization of the Right to Development? 

- 21st April 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

In my previous post, I noted that the right to development should be rejuvenated by building on recent advances of international human rights law, which strengthened the international obligations of States — not towards their own populations, but towards populations located outside their national territory or the international community as a whole.  For the realization […]

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U.N. Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment: A Catalyst for Grassroots-Centered U.S. Reform?

Nicholas Stump - 4th April 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

John H. Knox, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, recently issued a final report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. The report, which contains 16 Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment, summarizes international environmental human rights obligations. These principles outline state obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, […]

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Homeless at Home: Forced Internal Displacement In India

Adhil Saifudheen and Pranav Tanwar - 26th March 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

In September 2017, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSP), which was designated as the second largest dam in the world. Most of the Indian media projected it as a new boost to development. However, they systematically forgot the victims of forced displacement during the construction of SSP. SSP displaced 40,000 […]

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Taking the backseat? Strategic utilisation of human rights in the implementation of SDGs

Jaakko Kuosmanen - 17th March 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development| Sustainable Development Goals

Human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are closely entwined. The text of the Agenda declares that human rights constitute the foundation and the aim of development. It states that the Agenda is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights treaties, and that the SDGs seek “to realize the […]

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OxHRH

Irish High Court rules Constitution protects a ‘Right to an Environment’

Jamie McLoughlin - 6th March 2018

Business & Resources & Environment & Development

The recent 2017, Irish High Court judgment on environmental rights has been described as ‘historic’ as it declared that the Irish Constitution protects an un-enumerated personal constitutional ‘right to an environment that is consistent with the human dignity and well-being of citizens at large’ [241]. The case concerned a legal challenge brought by Friends of the […]

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