Evolutive Interpretation with Reference to Recent European Court of Human Rights Climate Change Case Law

Abstract

Evolutive interpretation is one of the most important principles of interpretation that has enabled the Court to interpret the Convention in the light of present-day conditions, expanding the scope of protection under the Convention, and at the same time, raising the question of the permissible limits of interpretation. In the recent climate change case law, the Court has found a violation due to the failure of the respondent state to develop and implement a normative framework that would mitigate the consequences of climate change. The Court has applied evolutive interpretation considering that the Convention does not guarantee the right to a healthy environment or a similar right. The authors use the normative and casuistic methods to determine whether the Court’s recent climate change case law provides clearer parameters for the application of the evolutive interpretation. The research results indicate that judicial case law is not coherent with regard to these conditions, and consequently, the limits of the Convention’s evolutive potential remain unclear.