The Progressive Recognition of the Fundamental Right to a Healthy Environment and the Role of the Courts in Ensuring Its Protection1

Abstract

The paper aims to highlight the decisive role of supranational and national courts in the recognition of a fundamental right to a healthy environment and in widening the scope of its protection. It analyses, in a critical sense, the doctrine that defines this trend as jurisprudential activism and that raises concerns regarding the principle of separation of powers.

Keywords

• environment
• fundamental rights
• climate litigation
• activism
• legal standing
• causal link
• astreintes
• separation of power
• democracy