Climate litigation between international law and domestic remedies: the virtuous example of collective claims

Claims concerning the environment and its relationship with human rights are growing in number and impact. This relationship is mainly explored in different fora through the lens of international human rights law. In this very heterogeneous framework, an interesting perspective is offered by domestic case-law in Europe, in which human rights’ obligations stemming from the jurisprudence of the ECtHR are used as a means of interpretation of States’ obligations towards their citizens. The focus on domestic jurisdiction offers various levels of facilitation to the access to environmental justice. On the other hand, it clashes with obstacles deriving from the risk of the lack of impact that a single decision can have, especially in legal systems of civil law typical of continental Europe. A possible way of contrasting these inherent obstacles is that of the “collective claim”, through which issues of a communal interest can be brought forward. The prospected solution, which shows appreciable margins of success, is that of the application of international human rights’ law standards of interpretation of international commitments on a national level and from a collective point of view.