Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to Accelerate Climate Action

by César Rodríguez-Garavito

Overview

This Element tells the twenty-year socio-legal story of human rights-based climate change litigation. Based on an original database of the totality of rights-based climate change (RCC) lawsuits around the world as well as interviews with leading actors and participant observation in the field, the Element explains the rise and global diffusion of RCC litigation. It combines insights from global governance, international law, climate policy, human rights, and legal mobilization theory in order to offer a socio-legal account of the actors, strategies, and norms that have emerged at the intersection of human rights and climate governance. By proposing a broad understanding of the impacts of legal mobilization that includes direct and indirect, material and symbolic effects, it documents the contributions and shortcomings of human rights litigation in addressing the climate emergency. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009420525
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/26/2025
Series:	Elements of Sustainability: Science, Policy, Practice
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Putting Climate Change on Trial; 2. Explaining the Rights Turn: Legal Opportunities and Mobilizing Frames at the Intersection of Human Rights and Climate Governance; 3. The Shape of the Field: Issues, Venues, Actors, and Strategies in Rights-Based Climate Litigation; 4. Addressing the Unique Challenges of Global Warming: The Evolving Law of Human Rights and Climate Change; 5. The Impact of Rights-Based Climate Litigation: Typology and Illustrations; 6. Looking Ahead: Lessons, Blind Spots, and the Potential of Rights-Based Climate Litigation.