ICJ AO Litigation Notes

Following the landmark climate advisory opinions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the ICJ provided exceptional clarity regarding the scope and content of States' duties under international law in the context of the climate crisis. This clarity has the potential to substantially enhance and inform ongoing climate cases as well as future claims before domestic, regional, and international courts. Indeed, since its issuance, the opinion has already been quietly and pervasively taken up across the litigation landscape.

To translate the ICJ AO’s normative clarity into practical litigation tools, a coalition of climate litigation practitioners have developed this compendium of structured “Litigation Notes”. These notes are designed to assist lawyers in integrating relevant conclusions of the ICJ AO into ongoing and future cases before domestic, regional, and international courts and quasi-judicial bodies towards advancing climate justice.

The litigation notes break down the opinion by topic, prioritising topics particularly charged in courts at present and/or critical for evolving strategies and the next “generation” or phase of climate litigation. The notes do not aim to be comprehensive in scope. Each contains sections on:

• Key excerpts (including paragraph numbers and specific references) of the most relevant text from the opinion;

• Situating the core findings in examples from the broader jurisprudential landscape to highlight what types of cases and claims could use such excerpts.

The compendium also includes a list of selected excerpts of overarching importance.