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Stephens on Human Rights Norms & Climate Change

By Lawrence Solum

Pamela J. Stephens (Vermont Law School) has posted Applying Human Rights Norms to Climate Change: The Elusive Remedy (Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy, Vol. 21, p. 49, 2010) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Much has been written about the growing impact of Global Climate Change on human rights as diverse as life, health, property and culture. This article addresses the broad question of the extent to which international human rights norms may be asserted to protect current and future generations from the effects of global climate change. Part II of the article considers potentially applicable norms in both treaty and customary international law. Part III explores the procedures for asserting these rights in the United States' national courts and the substantive and procedural hurdles in doing so. The principal focus of this exploration will be claims in federal courts under the Alien Tort Statute and under the general federal question statutory grant. The possibility of raising these international human rights norms in state courts will also be considered. Finally, Part V discusses raising such claims in a regional or international forum, in particular the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The article concludes that while such claims may not be entirely foreclosed, they are unlikely to succeed until the international norms are clearer and more universally accepted.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on July 26, 2010 (boomark / email).