Systemic climate change litigation, standing rules and the Aarhus Convention: a purposive approach

Date of Publication: 2021

This article explores whether an exceptional approach to standing rules is needed to square the gatekeeping function of the courts of states/international organisations that are signatories to the Aarhus Convention with the complexity and urgency of the climate crisis. The central claim is that standing rules do not necessarily need to be reconstructed to resolve this conflict. Rather, what European states and the EU need to do is take their procedural human rights obligations under the Aarhus Convention seriously.