This project explores how regional human rights courts in Europe and Latin America interpret intergenerational justice obligations in the context of climate change, conceived as the temporal distribution of burdens and benefits and the protection of structurally vulnerable groups, and how these interpretations affect democratic resilience. Through a functional and contextual analysis, it examines the KlimaSeniorinnen case before the ECtHR and Advisory Opinion 32/25 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, identifying convergences and divergences in their standards as well as in the political and social responses they generate.
The project investigates how climate litigation can reinforce the legitimacy and resilience of democracy and help prevent democratic backsliding by promoting decisions that are intertemporally oriented, inclusive, and participatory. Such decisions can counter political short termism and integrate socio-environmental vulnerabilities into economic and social planning. This requires rethinking the role of time in democratic theory: political processes must respond to present needs while also securing minimum guarantees for the future, particularly for groups in situations of vulnerability. The project therefore examines how law can mediate tensions between long term environmental goals and social equity, contributing to a more robust democracy in the face of the climate crisis.
Researchers
Focus
Climate litigation
Thalia Viveros
Thalia Viveros is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and a postdoctoral researcher in the TransLitigate Project at Tilburg University. She holds a PhD in Global Inclusion and Social Development from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Linnéa Nordlander
Linnéa Nordlander is an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Her research examines how human rights law can drive state action on climate change, with a focus on litigation at the international and regional levels.
- S. Fugleholm, C.P. Hansen, R. Holdgaard, J. Kamby, L. Nordlander, P. Perotti, and B. Martinez Romera, Klimaret – i dansk perspektiv (2026, DJØF).
- L. Nordlander, Paris in Strasbourg? The role of international environmental law in the ECtHR’s climate change jurisprudence (forthcoming 2026, ECHR Law Review).
- L. Nordlander, Conceptualising Loss and Damage for a New Frontier of Rights-Based Climate Change Litigation in Keller, H. and Heri, C. (eds) Reparation for Climate Change: The Successes and Limits of Litigation (2026, Sui Generis).
- L. Nordlander and J. Elo Rytter, Menneskerettighedsdomstolens praksis in Fugleholm, S., Hansen, C.P., Holdgaard, R., Kamby, J., Nordlander, L., Perotti, P., and Martinez Romera, B. (eds) Klimaret: i dansk perspektiv (2026, DJØF).
- L. Nordlander, National praksis in Fugleholm, S., Hansen, C.P., Holdgaard, R., Kamby, J., Nordlander, L., Perotti, P., and Martinez Romera, B. (eds) Klimaret: i dansk perspektiv (2026, DJØF).
- E. Wetendorff Nørgaard and L. Nordlander, Klimaretssager globalt in Fugleholm, S., Hansen, C.P., Holdgaard, R., Kamby, J., Nordlander, L., Perotti, P., and Martinez Romera, B. (eds) Klimaret: i dansk perspektiv (2026, DJØF).
- B. Martinez Romera, L. Nordlander, A. Monti, and J. Elo Rytter (eds), Human Rights and Investment Law for Climate Change: Trends and Prospects (2025, Edward Elgar).
- L. Nordlander, Constitutional boundaries after Verein KlimaSeniorinnen: Lessons on domestic rights-based climate change litigation from the Swedish Supreme Court’s Aurora Judgment (2025) Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law 1-6 doi.org/10.1111/reel.70006.
Corina Heri
Corina Heri is Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Tilburg University. She previously held positions at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Zurich. Her research focuses on human rights and climate change, the role of courts in strategic and public interest litigation, and the relationship between law and vulnerability.
- H. Keller / C. Heri (eds.), Reparation for Climate Change: The Successes and Limits of Litigation (sui generis 2026).
- C. Heri, ‘Are Climate Victims Human? Re-Imagining the Subject of European Human Rights for the Anthropocene’, ECHR Law Review (forthcoming).
- C. Heri, ‘Climate-related Vulnerabilities and the European Court of Human Rights: Reimagining Victim status through Intersectional Thinking’, Leiden Journal of International Law (2025).
- H. Keller / V. Gurash / C. Heri, ‘Do We Need a World Climate Court?’, 85(3) Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (2025), 725-756.
- C. Heri, ‘Mattering in the Anthropocene: the ECtHR’s Domesticating Framing of Climate Change’, International Journal of Human Rights (2025).
- C. Heri, ‘The ECtHR’s KlimaSeniorinnen Judgment: A Cautious Model for Climate Litigation’, 28 Spanish Yearbook of International Law (2025), 311-319.
- C. Heri, ‘Les apports limités du “minimalisme judiciaire”: Quelques observations sous Verein KlimaSeniorinnen’, Revue internationale de droit comparé (2025).
Edward Pérez
Edward Pérez is a PhD candidate at University College London. He previously worked as a lawyer at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Center for Reproductive Rights. His doctoral research focuses on structural remedies ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Stefanía Rainaldi
Stefanía Rainaldi is a PhD candidate at Queen Mary University of London and Graduate Teaching Assistant in Public Law. Her doctoral thesis addresses structural discrimination and poverty. She has also worked as a consultant for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Introductory readings
- A. Savaresi, J. Setzer, S. Bookman, T. Chan, I. Keuschnigg, K. Bouwer, C. Armeni, A. Harrington, C. Heri, I. Higham, C. Hilson, R. Luporini, C. Macchi, L. Nordlander, P. Obani, L. Peterson, A. Schapper, N. Singh Ghaleigh, M.A. Tigre and M. Wewerinke-Singh, ‘Conceptualising Just Transition Litigation’, 7 Nature Sustainability (2024), 1379-1384.
- Beacham, A., Hafner-Burton, E. M., & Schneider, C. J. (2024). Climate Change, Political Conflict, and Democratic Resilience (working paper). https://ucigcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024_wp11_beacham-hafnerburton-schneider_v3-FINAL.pdf
- Caserta, S., & Cebulak, P. (2021). Resilience techniques of international courts in times of resistance of international law. International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 70, 737.
- C. Heri, L. Nordlander and A. Savaresi, Recognizing the Right to a Healthy Environment at the Council of Europe: Why Does it Matter? (2024) 1 Environmental Rights Review 2 doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10634738.
- C. Heri, ‘Climate Change’s Bankovic Moment? Understanding the European Court of Human Rights’ Duarte Agostinho decision’ 49(4) European Law Review (2024) 408-419.
- C. Heri, ‘KlimaSeniorinnen and its Discontents: Climate Change at the European Court of Human Rights’, 4 European Human Rights Law Review (2024) 317-331.
- C. Heri, ‘Too Big to Remedy? What Climate Cases Tell Us about Admissibility, Remedies and (Procedural) Justice’, ECHR Law Review (2024) (advance access).
- C. Heri, ‘Justice in the Liminal: The Council of Europe and the Right to a Healthy Environment Across Time and Place’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2024) (open access).
- C. Heri / L. Nordlander / A. Savaresi, ‘Recognizing the Right to a Healthy Environment at the Council of Europe: Why Does it Matter?’ Environmental Rights Review (2024).
- C. Heri, ‘Deference, Dignity, and ‘Theoretical Crisis’: Justifying ECtHR Rights between Prudence and Protection’ 24(1) Human Rights Law Review (2024) (open access).
- C. Heri, ‘Climate Change before the European Court of Human Rights: Capturing Risk, Ill-Treatment and Vulnerability’ 33(3) European Journal of International Law (2022) (open access).
- Dann, P., et al. (Eds.). (2020). The Southern Turn in Comparative Constitutional Law: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Eckes, C. (2025). “It’s the democracy, stupid!” In defence of KlimaSeniorinnen. ERA Forum, 25, 451.
- Eckes, C. (2022). Tackling the climate crisis with counter-majoritarian instruments: Judges between political paralysis, science, and international law. European Papers, 6(2021), 1307.
- Habermas, J. (1994). Human rights and popular sovereignty: The liberal and republican versions. Ratio Juris, 7(1), 1.
- Holloway, J., & Manwaring, R. (2023). How well does “resilience” apply to democracy? A systematic review. Contemporary Politics, 29(1), 68–92.
- Humphreys, S. (2022). Against future generations. European Journal of International Law, 33, 1061.
- L. Nordlander, The road (not) taken: Implications of health-focused arguments in rights-based climate change litigation in Europe (2024) International Journal of Human Rights doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2024.2418480.
- L. Nordlander, What’s in a right? Concretizing states’ climate change mitigation obligations under human rights law (2024) 24 Human Rights Law Review 1 doi.org/10.1093/hrlr/ngae001.
- L. Nordlander, Human Rights and Climate Change: The Law on Loss and Damage (Routledge, 2023).
- L. Nordlander, Human Rights Law as a Gap-Filler: The Invisibility of Climate Vulnerability in International Climate Change Law in Lupin Townsend, D. (ed) A Research Agenda for Human Rights and the Environment (Edward Elgar 2023).
- L. Nordlander, Litigating climate change in the Arctic: the potential of Sámi human rights claims Journal of Human Rights and the Environment (2022) doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2022.02.05.
- Nicola, F. C., & Frankenberg, G. (2024). Comparative Law: Introduction to a Critical Practice. Edward Elgar.
- Popova, M., & Allison, C. R. (2023). Politicization of courts in European democracies. In H. R. M. Howard, K. A. Randazzo, & R. A. Reid (Eds.), Research Handbook on Law and Political Systems. Edward Elgar.
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