Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.30925/zpfsr.47.1.4
Is It Time for a “Fourth Generation” of the Right to Live in a Healthy Environment?
Gabrijela Mihelčić
; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law
*
Maša Marochini Zrinski
orcid.org/0000-0002-8441-2277
; Constitutional Court of the republic of Croatia; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law
Goranka Barać-Ručević
orcid.org/0009-0000-7188-1448
; Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This paper examines how the developments made in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in so-called climate cases – particularly Verein Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland – are reflected in the protection of the right to live in a healthy environment. The analysis focuses primarily on the expansion of the concept, namely, the scope of victims, and on the category of so-called general causation. Particular attention is also given to the conclusions drawn by the European Court of Human Rights with regard to this category in so-called environmental cases; to this end, the recent case of Cannavacciuolo and Others v. Italy is discussed. The analysis would not be complete without addressing the “third” sphere of protection, namely the traditional civil-law sphere, which can be linked to protection against immissions. In this context, the viewpoints adopted by the European Court of Human Rights in the recent case of Đorđević v. Serbia are presented. The analysis of the most recent viewpoints and case law is preceded by an examination of the previous development of protection in both case law and legal theory. Although the protection of rights under Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the right to respect for the home and the right to respect for private and family life) lies at the centre of the research – demonstrating that space has opened for a new generation of environmental rights – it was not possible to overlook the protection of the right to life under Article 2 of the Convention and all that the European Court of Human Rights has stated in that regard. Particular attention is devoted to the characteristics of general causation concerning the existence of a real and immediate risk, which depends on the assessment of the circumstances of the particular case. In this context, the concept of a real threat requires the existence of a serious, genuine, and sufficiently ascertainable threat to life, while immediacy implies the element of physical proximity of the threat.
Keywords
environment; climate cases; general causation.
Hrčak ID:
346125
URI
Publication date:
15.4.2026.
Visits: 401 *