This article maps climate litigation developments in Latin America and their human rights and constitutional rights implications. As in other regions of the Global South, groups and individuals in Latin America have engaged in litigation to counter environmental harms threatening or violating the enjoyment of their human rights. Climate change, either as a primary or as a secondary concern, is slowly becoming a key focus of this form of strategic human rights-based litigation. Despite the gradual increase of the ‘Latin American docket’ of climate litigation cases, very few academic accounts have explored its legal dimensions or its contextual underpinnings. This article addresses this lacuna by identifying and examining the constitutional opportunities for and constraints upon adjudicating climate-related cases through human rights law, and also problematizes the development of climate litigation in Latin America by drawing attention to the influence of extractivist political and economic interests. The categories used for analysis stem from the literature on climate litigation in the Global South, case law and interviews with Latin-American litigants. The article concludes by stressing that this type of climate litigation is increasing and has led to several favourable verdicts, but caution is warranted as some political economy elements might hinder the development of such litigation, its inclusivity and long-term effectiveness.
* juangauz@gmail.com
The author would like to thank Basşak Çalı, Alain Zysset, Joana Setzer, Annalisa Savaresi, Mariagrazia Alabrese, Sam Varvastian, Chris Hilson, Monica Feria-Tinta, Kim Fe Cramer and the anonymous reviewers and editors for their insightful comments and suggestions.
Purchase
Pay to Access Content (PDF download and unlimited online access)
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your Elgar Online account
- 1 INTRODUCTION: CLIMATE LITIGATION SPROUTS IN THE LATIN AMERICAN LANDSCAPE
- 2 PACIFIC WATERS: OPPORTUNITIES FOR LITIGATION
- Chart of legal opportunities for human rights-based climate litigation in Latin America (composed by the author)
- 2.1 A green cadastral: constitutional environmental rights in Latin America
- 2.2 Porous soils: the percolation of international law into domestic judgments
- 2.3 The ecological amparo: broadening legal standing for constitutional injunctions
- 3 TEMPESTUOUS WATERS: POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO CLIMATE LITIGATION
- 4 CONCLUSIONS
| Since 2022 | Since May 2022 | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 732 | 678 | 56 |
| Full Text Views | 138 | 130 | 10 |
| PDF Downloads | 116 | 102 | 12 |
