Climate Litigation and Constitutional Courts: Advancing Intergenerational Environmental Rights Through Constitutional Adjudication

Abstract

Climate change has intensified the need for legal frameworks that recognise environmental protection as an essential component of constitutional governance. In recent years, climate litigation has emerged as a significant pathway through which constitutional courts interpret and enforce environmental rights, particularly in relation to future generations. This paper examines how constitutional adjudication has contributed to the development of intergenerational environmental rights within environmental constitutionalism. The paper traces the evolution of environmental rights from implicit protections under the right to life and dignity toward recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Through a doctrinal and comparative analysis of landmark judicial developments including Urgenda Foundation v. Netherlands, Leghari v. Federation of Pakistan, Minors Oposa v. Factoran, and leading environmental jurisprudence under the Indian Constitution, the study highlights how courts have invoked doctrines such as the precautionary principle, sustainable development, and the public trust doctrine to conceptualise climate inaction as a constitutional violation. These cases illustrate a growing judicial willingness to recognise the climate crisis as a rights-based concern and to impose obligations on the State to protect present and future generations from environmental harm. At the same time, the paper evaluates institutional and normative challenges associated with climate constitutionalism, including separation of powers, institutional competence, democratic legitimacy, and enforceability of judicial mandates. Constitutional litigation therefore operates as both a catalyst and a safeguard within climate governance. The paper concludes that climate litigation before constitutional courts represents an evolving but powerful instrument for promoting intergenerational environmental justice. By embedding environmental protection within the constitutional order, courts help transform climate action from policy choice into constitutional obligation grounded in rights, duties, and the ethical imperative to safeguard future generations.