CASE DOCUMENTS
Rule 33 of the rules of the European Court of Human Rights states that all documents filed with the Court are of a “public character” unless otherwise decided by the Court. The Court has not decided that any document filed in this case should not be published.
The submissions are published in recognition of the fact that there is a significant level of public interest in this case and also in viewing the submissions. It is however emphasised that publication of these submissions should in no way be taken to suggest that the case is being pursued by the youth-Applicants in the public interest. The Respondent States argue that they are doing so, and are not themselves personally affected by impacts of climate change, in an effort to claim they are not “victims” under Article 34 of the Convention.
Certain details containing sensitive personal information of the youth-Applicants have been redacted.
The submissions are presented below in chronological order. In light of the large volume of submissions, readers may wish to focus on the submissions of the parties to the Grand Chamber which summarise and supplement the preceding submissions. Again, because of the large volume of materials, only annexes to submissions prepared specifically for the case have been published.
Application and expert report (3rd September 2020)
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Following its filing, the case was assigned to a Chamber of 7 judges (in the Court’s Fourth Section)
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Third Party Interventions before the Chamber (6th May 2021)
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Governments’ observations in reply (14th August 2021)
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Applicants’ observations (9th February 2022)
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Governments’ further observations in reply (13th June 2022)
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Following the exchange of written submissions before the Chamber, it relinquished the case to the 17-judge Grand Chamber on 28th June 2022. The Grand Chamber then invited the parties to submit summaries of their existing observations and to answer specific questions outlined by the Grand Chamber (see here). It also requested the Respondent States to make a joint submission on as many issues as possible. The Respondent States submitted this joint submission together with individual supplemental submissions addressing their ‘domestic remedies’ and own individual climate policies. New and updated Third Party Interventions were also submitted to the Grand Chamber.
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Third Party Interventions before the Grand Chamber (5th December 2022)
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Applicants’ submission to the Grand Chamber (5th December 2022)
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Governments’ submission to the Grand Chamber (31st January 2023)
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The parties were then invited to submit short replies to each other’s submissions to the Grand Chamber
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Applicants’ replying submissions (29th March 2023)
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Governments’ replying submissions (29th March 2023)
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Applicants’ additional material (29th September 2023)