CLX Director and Attorneys Publish Report on 20 Landmark Court Decisions on the Right to a Healthy Environment

As with any human right, courts have played a critical role in defining the R2HE’s parameters, scope, and application. To illustrate the power of judicial action when it comes to the right, a new report highlights 20 landmark decisions drawn from every region of the world.

The report’s cases were selected through a collaborative effort involving the former UN special rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and CLX attorneys at NYU’s School of Law. The report covers a host of landmark cases related to climate change and highlights significant advancements in the application of key legal principles, such as those of prevention, precaution, non-regression, and polluter pays.

Cases were chosen to illustrate geographic breadth, innovative judicial reasoning, diverse environmental challenges, and the bold remedies ordered by courts. The landmark decisions come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Hungary, India, Kenya, Latvia, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Seychelles, South Africa, and the United States.

To find out more, download the report and read the authors’ Can judges help save the planet? Landmark court decisions on the right to a healthy environment. To learn more about the R2HE Toolkit, visit www.r2he.info.