Strategic Climate Change Litigation and Fundamental Rights – An Introduction Content • Climate Change and the Law • Climate change and fundamental rights violations • Legal Personhood, Nature, and Rights of Nature in Climate Litigation • Climate litigation as a tool to address climate change in Courts • Strategic climate litigation as a transnational phenomenon Expected learning outcome • Understand the legal dimension of climate change • Explain how climate change affects core human rights • Explain the concept of legal personhood of nature and analyze the strategic value of ecocentric claims in climate litigation • Understand the scope and limits of climate litigation as a field • Identify methodological approaches to transnational legal analysis Materials • Extract from P.M. Dupuy, J.E. Vinuales, International Environmental Law, 2nd ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018, Ch. 5, pp. 147-201. • Extract from P. Sands, J. Peel, A. Fabra, R. MacKenzie, Principles of International Environmental Law, 4th ed., 2018, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, Ch. 8, pp. 295-336. • Extract from A. Boyle, C. Redgwell, Birnie, Boyle, and Redgwell's International Law and the Environment, 4th ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2021, Ch. 6, pp. 356-404.

Legal Mobilization and the Rise of Strategic Climate Litigation. Climate Lawfare? Content • Climate litigation within legal mobilization theory • Bottom-up v. top-down approaches in climate regulation • Movement lawyering and judicial activism • Between rights revolution and hollow hope • Case-study: the legal mobilization in the Dutch Shell case Expected learning outcome • Analyze climate litigation through legal mobilization theory • Understand the features of bottom-up and top-down approaches in climate regulation • Evaluate the potentialities of the judicial process in driving social change • Analyze the role of legal mobilization in shaping the strategy, framing, and outcomes of climate litigation in the Dutch Shell case • Critically assess how civil society actors leverage litigation to impose climate obligations Materials • Extract from Milieudefensie, How We Defeated Shell. Milieudefensie et al. v. Royal Dutch Shell PLC – a peek behind the scenes, 2021, pp. 10-24.

The Rights-Turn in Climate Change Litigation – Mapping the Global Phenomenon Content • Typologies of climate change litigation • Emergence of rights-based claims • Promises and aporias of human rights litigation • Unresolved theoretical tensions Expected learning outcome • Classify different forms of climate litigation • Critically assess the advantages and contradictions of rights-based claims • Identify unresolved doctrinal debates • Understand the global architecture of the field

Litigation against States 1/4: Mitigation Obligations 1/3 – The Urgenda Case Content • Rights-based litigation in Europe against States • Foundational case: the Netherlands • The Urgenda paradigm Systemic implications of the Urgenda case Expected learning outcome • Understand the features of climate litigation against States in Europe • Analyze the Dutch context • Critically assess the strengths of the Urgenda model Evaluate its limits and structural challenges Materials • Urgenda v. The State of the Netherlands, Dutch Supreme Court, ECLI:NL:HR:2019:2006, December 20th, 2019.

Litigation against States 2/4: Mitigation Obligations 2/3 – Replicating Urgenda at National Level Content • The legacy and limits of the Urgenda model • Target-setting litigation in Europe • Analysis of most relevant cases: France, Belgium and Italy • The German constitutional turn: intergenerational rights and the “constitutionalization” of climate obligations (Neubauer et al. v. Germany) • In-depth analysis of the circulation of the Urgenda paradigm Expected learning outcome • Assess the transformative impact of the Urgenda model on rights-based climate litigation • Evaluate the role of human rights in shaping judicial scrutiny of climate targets • Identify and explain the key legal arguments and outcomes in major climate cases in France, Belgium, and Italy • Analyze the German case’s implications for the evolution of rights-based climate litigation in Europe • Compare how different jurisdictions apply rights-based reasoning and state obligations Materials • Neubauer et al. v. Germany, German Federal Constitutional Court, 1 BvR 2656/18, March 24th, 2021.

Litigation against States 3/4: Mitigation Obligations 3/3 – Replicating Urgenda at Supranational Level Content • From Urgenda to Strasbourg: projecting climate obligations to the supranational level • How the Urgenda logic ended up before the European Court of Human Rights • Recognition of positive obligations to mitigate climate change: the KlimaSeniorinnen case Towards a harmonization of climate obligations via Art. 8 ECHR? Expected learning outcome • Explain the transition from national climate litigation to supranational adjudication • Trace the procedural and doctrinal pathway through which Urgenda-fashioned arguments reached the European Court of Human Rights • Analyze how the Court derives positive obligations to mitigate climate change from Article 8 ECHR • Critically assess the harmonization potential of Art. 8 ECHR in climate obligations against the tension with States’ margin of appreciation Materials • Verein Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz v. Switzerland, European Court of Human Rights, n. 53600/20, April 9th, 2024.

Litigation against States 4/4: Adaptation Obligations – Expanding Urgenda at National Level Content • Analysis of the expansion of the Urgenda logic: from mitigation to adaptation • Climate vulnerability and differentiated state obligations towards the Global South • Justiciability of adaptation policies • Toward a new phase of rights-based climate litigation on adaptation Expected learning outcome • Explain how the reasoning in Urgenda can be extended from mitigation to adaptation obligations • Evaluate legal arguments supporting heightened protection for vulnerable populations and territories • Assess whether and to what extent adaptation measures are subject to judicial review Identify emerging trends in adaptation-focused climate litigation; critically evaluate whether a new paradigm of rights-based climate litigation is surging Materials • Greenpeace Netherlands and 8 citizens of Bonaire v. The Netherlands, The Hague District Court, ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2026:1347, January 28th, 2026.

The International Dimension of Rights-Based Change Litigation against States 1/2 Content • Rights-based climate litigation as a transnational political strategy • The role of activist movements in shaping litigation agendas • Litigation as a tool for establishing climate obligations at global level • Comparing Advisory Opinions on Climate Change: ITLOS, Inter-American Court of Human Rights and International Court of Justice Expected learning outcome • Explain how rights-based climate litigation functions as a transnational governance tool • Analyze how activist movements strategically shape the selection, framing, and timing of climate litigation • Critically assess the potential of advisory opinions to foster harmonization • Analyze analogies and differences related to how advisory opinions contribute to the shaping of State obligations on climate change

The International Dimension of Rights-Based Change Litigation against States 2/2 – The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change Content • The advisory opinion as a tool of strategic climate litigation • Defining states’ obligations under international customary and treaty law • The intersection between climate change and fundamental rights in international law The impacts of the ICJ Advisory Opinion Expected learning outcome • Understand advisory proceedings and opinions as strategic litigation tools • Analyze the content of international climate obligations • Assess the integration of human rights into international climate law Critically evaluate the normative impact of the ICJ opinion Materials • Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change, International Court of Justice, No. 2025/36, July 23th, 2025.

Litigation against Corporations 1/3 – From Corporate Social Responsibility to Binding Obligations Content • The evolution from voluntary CSR to legal accountability • The emergence of mandatory due diligence frameworks in Europe • Human rights and environmental due diligence as litigation enablers Strategic litigation against corporations: rationale and actors Expected learning outcome • Explain the evolution from voluntary CSR to binding legal obligations in Europe, and its political fallout • Analyze the legal structure and implications of mandatory due diligence legislations • Assess how due diligence regimes enable strategic climate litigation against corporations Critically assess the strengths and limits of corporate accountability frameworks

Litigation against Corporations 2/3 – The Shell Formula Content • The Shell case and its strategic nature • Rights-based litigation and corporations mitigation duties • The role of due diligence legislation in shaping litigation Imitating Shell: the Italian climate case against ENI Expected learning outcome • Analyze the Shell case as an example of horizontal application of fundamental rights • Evaluate the potentials of litigation as a tool for imposing climate duties on corporations • Critically assess the intersection between litigation and mandatory due diligence frameworks • Compare different legal strategies used in European corporate climate cases Materials Milieudefensie et al. v. Shell, The Hague District Court, ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2021:5339, May 26th, 2021 Shell v. Milieudefensie et al., The Hague Court of Appeal, ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2024:2100, November 12th, 2024.

Litigation against Corporations 3/3 – Enforcement, Remedies, and the Future of Corporate Climate Litigation Content • Enforcement challenges in corporate climate litigation • Remedies and their strategic use • The political and regulatory impact of litigation • Regulating corporate climate governance through litigation Expected learning outcome • Identify and assess key challenges in enforcing corporate climate obligations • Evaluate the effectiveness of different remedies in strategic litigation • Analyze the interaction between litigation, regulation, and corporate governance • Critically assess the attempts to regulate corporate climate governance through litigation