Between Paradox and Practical Reason: Access to Justice in KlimaSeniorinnen as Front Line of European Climate Litigation

Abstract

Standing requirements before the European Court of Human Rights pose significant hurdles for plaintiffs in climate litigation, exposing deep tensions between judicial restraint and legal accountability, redress for vulnerable groups and discrete access to justice. In KlimaSeniorinnen , the Court advanced an evolutive interpretation of victim status and legal representation standards ‘in the light of conditions in contemporary society’, drawing extensively on the international legal framework through the principle of systemic integration. The key doctrinal takeaway is the articulation of justiciable minimum standards of due diligence for climate mitigation under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, situated at the intersection of nearly unattainable individual victimhood and a substantive evolution of locus standi for demonstrably affected vulnerable groups. Although the Court’s reasoning strains several doctrinal conundrums – particularly regarding the interplay between individual victim status and legal representation – it ultimately constitutes a principled increment of legal accountability, commensurate with the necessities brought forward by the prospect of climate collapse.