Non aprite quella porta: status di vittima e legittimazione ad agire davanti alla Corte europea dei diritti umani in materia climatica

It is widely recognised that the human-rights-based climate litigation before the European Court of Human Rights raises serious issues concerning the inevitable tensions between, on the one hand, the inherent collective nature of the interests invoked by the applicants in similar cases and the effects of a potential successful litigation and, on the other hand, the principle of individual justice and the prohibition of actio popularis, pursuant to which applicants may not complain about a provision of domestic law, a domestic practice or public acts simply because they appear to contravene the Convention. The present contribution assesses in a critical way how the Court has dealt with this issue in the case of Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland and highlights some inconsistencies in the Court’s ruling as regards both the meaning and effects of the prohibition of actio popularis and the compatibility of the ruling with principles which are well-established in the Court’s case-law.