Climate change before the European and the inter-American court of human rights: comparing possible avenues before human rights bodies

In the light of an increasing trend of climate change-related litigation before human rights bodies, this article assesses and compares the possible outcomes of cases submitted before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). First, it assesses what rights can be used in a climate change-related case. Second, it analyses the collective causation arguments that may be raised. Third, it assesses the conditions of victimhood hand-in-hand with the causal link between greenhouse gas emissions and the harm suffered. Third, it considers States' jurisdiction under human rights treaties to assess if climate change-related obligations are also extraterritorial. Finally, it assesses the possible ruling of these courts in climate change-related cases. Our main finding is that it is likely that the ECtHR and the IACtHR will follow a similar reasoning and that it is possible that both courts will end up declaring a human rights violation related to States' failure to adopt adaptation policies (and, to a lesser extent, mitigation policies also). However, it may be more difficult to set out what remedies are owed to the applicants.