2025 Liberty Lecture: Climate Change and Human Rights Law

Ioannis Ktistakis will deliver the School of Law's annual Liberty Lecture on the topic Climate Change and Human Rights Law.

Abstract

Should the ECHR become 'Europe's environmental court'?

Currently, the ECHR does not recognise an autonomous right to a healthy environment. However, the Court's existing tools are important: the living instrument theory and alignment with international law. These have enabled Strasbourg to protect citizens when pollution or environmental hazards seriously impact their home and private lives.

The ECHR then considers the climate of the times. Across Europe and beyond, courts are being called upon to intervene because politics often lags behind science and targets – consider Urgenda in the Netherlands and the ICJ and IACtHR opinions on climate change. The argument for action is both moral and practical: climate change undermines human rights, and judges should not remain indifferent. However, there are reasons for caution: constitutional considerations such as the separation of powers and margins of appreciation, and the risk that bold decisions could be seen as ‘judicial adventurism’.

About the speaker

Ioannis KTISTAKIS is a Judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (2021-) and President of its Third Section (2024-). Prior to that, he was an associate Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, Democritus University of Thrace [Komotini-Greece], assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University [Istanbul-Turkey] and visiting Professor at Faculty of Law, George Washington University [Washington DC - USA]. Former memberships included the Executive Board of European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, the Greek Equal Treatment Committee and the Greek National Commission for Human Rights.

Prior to his election to the ECtHR, he had successfully represented applicants in 53 cases before the Court (relating to the right to a fair trial, the right to life, the right to freedom of religion, and the right to peaceful enjoyment of possessions). He also successfully defended a collective complaint concerning the pollution of the Asopos River (lack of appropriate initiatives with respect to the presence of hexavalent chromium in the water; Collective Complaint No. 72/2011; International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) v. Greece) before the European Committee of Social Rights, as well as many other environmental cases before the Greek Council of State.

He has over 61 publications on issues related to public international law, immigration law, environmental law and religious freedom.

How to attend

This is a free event, though registration is required in advance via Tickettailor.