Climate Change & The Courts: Limits, Role, and Potential

Join the Harvard Human Rights Journal and the Harvard European Law Association for a lecture by Dr. Síofra O’Leary, former President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which will look at recent climate litigation in Europe, focusing on three ground-breaking cases decided by the ECHR in 2024. It will reflect on the role of courts in relation to climate change commitments, the procedural obstacles which applicants may face in such cases, the grounds of review relied on, and the standards of scrutiny to be applied. The lecture will also provide good insight into the ECHR’s practice and procedures, while also delving into the particularities of climate change litigation before it and the implications for climate litigation and policy in the United States.

Co-sponsored by the Women’s Law Association, the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, the HLS American Constitutional Society, the Harvard Law & Policy Review, the Harvard International Law Journal, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, the Harvard Human Rights Program, and the Harvard Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic.