Reading Group: Human Rights and the Climate Crisis

Following two landmark judgments in the summer of 2025, this reading group will critically analyze the rapidly evolving international human rights law on the climate crisis. It will explore how climate change came to be conceptualized as a human rights issue, and contemporary and emerging legal doctrine on issues such as the rights of future generations, the right to a stable environment, rights of nature, due diligence, and extraterritorial human rights obligations. It will consider how human rights law interacts with other fields of international law; the theory and practice of human rights norm evolution; storytelling in legal advocacy; and the role of global south activists and states as norm innovators. This reading group will assess the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Advisory Opinion No 32 (July 3, 2025) and the International Court of Justice’s Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change Advisory Opinion (July 23, 2025), examining how the cases came to be, how activists used the forums, legal findings, geopolitical contexts, and likely implications, opportunities, and limitations. The reading group will inquire into the extent to which viewing the climate emergency as a human rights issue is productive, and the tensions that arise for activists in using legal and human rights tools.