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Framing climate remedies in European Human Rights Law: it is all about trust - in European democracies

Abstract:
This article employs frame analysis to examine how the European Court of Human Rights has addressed climate remedies in its three seminal climate rulings. It argues that, after diagnosing climate change as a human rights law problem, the Court has  proposed solutions to remedy the problem and to motivate future action through what I call the ‘democratic frame of trust.’ Whilst this frame acknowledges that not taking adequate climate action in Europe may amount to human rights violations, it proposes to address these inadequacies by placing trust in the institutions of European states, notably national governments, parliaments, domestic courts, and civil society. This frame in turn marginalizes alternative solutionoriented frames put forward by the litigants, who argue that a diagnosis of climate change as a human rights problem is not enough. Climate change also requires identifying solutions by broadening access to climate remedies on the one hand, and fair share contributions of European states to climate change informing remedial solutions in a timely manner on the other. A key implication of this analysis is that, whilst these pathbreaking judgments successfully diagnosed climate change as a human rights law problem, the European Court of Human Rights has retreated from the solution space to address it and, by doing so, has made the Court’s legal doctrine of deference to states more resilient for future climate cases.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1080/13642987.2025.2573800

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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
SSD
Department:
Law
Oxford college:
Mansfield College
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0003-3422-200X


Publisher:
Taylor & Francis
Journal:
International Journal of Human Rights More from this journal
Volume:
30
Issue:
2
Pages:
402-421
Publication date:
2025-11-11
Acceptance date:
2025-10-06
DOI:
EISSN:
1744-053X
ISSN:
1364-2987


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
2300675
Local pid:
pubs:2300675
Deposit date:
2025-10-21
ARK identifier:

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