Report “Climate Justice in the European Human Rights System”.

The Normandy Chair for Peace has commissioned the Fundamental Rights Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law of Caen Normandy to produce an expert report on a rising theme: “Climate Justice in the European Human Rights System” in September 2020.

The Fundamental Rights Law Clinic was created in 2009 by the Centre de Recherche sur les Droits Fondamentaux et les Evolutions du Droit (CRDFED). Inspired by the American Law Clinic model, it has a triple vocation: educational, scientific and social. Acting with the aim of improving the protection of human rights, the Clinic’s activities can be understood in terms of the following three objectives :

• Develop expertise in fundamental rights through research,
• Involve researchers and practitioners in the understanding of fundamental rights,
• Provide “integrated training” for students on fundamental rights.

This tripartite relationship between teachers-researchers, practitioners and students creates added value for research and teaching in fundamental rights and more broadly for the field of human rights. The Clinic provides researchers, students and practitioners with a better understanding of fundamental rights and their legal protection mechanisms and thus ensures their greater effectiveness.

Emilie GAILLARD, coordinator of the Chair, opened the cycle of exchanges with the students by presenting the transgenerational reading of human rights: it is possible not only to recognize the fundamental rights of future generations, but above all, equally fundamental duties towards them.

Agnès MICHELOT, HDR lecturer, President of the French Society for Environmental Law, then gave a presentation to students on the concept of climate justice.

Marie ROTA, Lecturer at the University of Lorraine, also participated in the exchanges by providing her expertise on the comparative analysis of the European and inter-American human rights systems, specifically on the methods of interpretation used by the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Christel COURNIL, Professor of Public Law at Sciences-Po Toulouse, presented a holistic vision of the different types of climate justice actions that are sweeping the planet.

At the end of the 2020-2021 academic year, a report was submitted, printed and sent by the Normandy Chair of Excellence for Peace to various experts identified by the student authors of the report.

We would like to thank the pedagogical team that supervised the students, namely :

• Aurore CATHERINE, Director of the Caen Legal Clinic, Lecturer of Public Law, University of Caen-Normandy
• Anne-Sophie DELNOLLE, Lecturer of public law at the University of Nîmes,
• Eugénie DUVAL, Doctor of Public Law, ATER at the Faculty of Law of the University of Caen-Normandy
• Alexandra KORSAKOFF, Lecturer and contract researcher in public law, University of Caen-Normandy
• Jean-Manuel LARRALDE, Professor of Public Law, University of Caen-Normandy