International Courts as Venues for Climate Activists: Conceptualizing the Effectiveness of International Climate Litigation Through Norm Development

This thesis explores the emergence of international courts as venues for climate activists, and how climate litigation connects climate change-related damages to human rights law to broaden human rights norms related to the environment. Through three case studies of international climate cases, this project evaluates the effectiveness of international climate litigation through direct effectiveness, indirect effectiveness, and normative effectiveness. It argues that international climate cases are involved in the work of larger transnational advocacy networks who engage with issue framing that presents their causes to both a legal and a public audience. Framing is an ongoing, contested process that both activists and respondent states engage with, but the processes of norm development and socialization it prompts may ultimately work to advance the idea of climate and environment-related rights.