The Shell Case: A Viable Path to Establish Corporate Climate Responsibility?
On 26 May 2021, The Hague District Court in the Netherlands ordered energy giant Shell to reduce the CO2 emissions of the Shell group by net 45% in 2030 relative...
A Potential Avenue for Justice: The Possibility of International Criminal Responsibility for Gender-Based Violence caused by Climate Change
Climate change is leading to the rapid degradation of land, forcing communities to abandon their homes in search of habitable land. This forced migration disproportionately affects women, resulting in increased...
Giving Voice to the Vulnerable: How Advisory Opinions Have the Potential to Advance Climate Justice through International Courts
In the context of the current climate crisis, climate change litigation has taken a new form over the past year. There have been increasing requests for advisory opinions from international...
Will Ireland Constitutionalise Environmental Human Rights and the Rights of Nature as a Response to the Biodiversity Crisis?
Earlier this year, a Citizens’ Assembly in Ireland tasked with examining biodiversity loss made a number of far-reaching constitutional amendment recommendations. The Assembly’s Report proposed that a referendum be held...
Serendipitous Sustainability: How Karnataka’s ‘Gruha Jyothi’ and ‘Shakti’ Schemes Can Bolster Climate Action
India, with its growing population and energy demands, faces a multifaceted challenge in balancing its commitment towards economic development with environmental sustainability. However, sometimes the governmental policies primarily designed for...
The Menace of Manual Scavenging in India: The Case for Stronger Legal Implementation
The right to a clean, safe, and healthy environment is a fundamental right protected by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, encompassed by the right to life. However, sanitation employees...
Ecocentrism and the Right to a Healthy Environment: To What Extent Can Human Rights Protect Non-Human Life?
In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to a ‘clean, healthy, and sustainable environment’. Before the General Assembly resolution expressly recognized this right, other sources of...
India’s Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill: Undermining Forest Dwellers’ Rights
On 30 March 2023, the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 was introduced in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of Parliament, and later referred to a Joint Committee of Parliament...
Lessons from the French Vigilance Law for the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
On 23rd February 2022, the European Commission published a draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (‘the Draft Directive’) that will mandate companies operating within the European Union (‘EU’) above a...
The UK Bill of Rights: Changes to Human Rights Protection may Impact Climate Litigation
Across the world, human rights-based arguments are increasingly deployed in climate litigation against public bodies. However, in the UK, potential reforms to the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) – an...
What’s next in Climate Litigation before the European Court of Human Rights? Duarte Agostinho and Others v Portugal and 32 other States
On 29 March 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) heard its first two climate cases (Verein Klima Seniorinnen and Others v Switzerland and Carême v France). Meanwhile, another...
Houses Without Land: The Strange Property Rights Phenomenon in the Kenyan Coastal Region and its Effect on coastal communities’ right to housing
The common law maxim cujus est solem ejus et usque ad coelum et ad inferos affirms that whoever owns a piece of land owns it all the way up to...