The direct adjudication of the human right to a healthy enviroment by the IACtHR: methodological structure

Articulo

Resumen *

In this text we reconstruct the methodology used by the Interamerican Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) when directly adjudicating economic, social, cultural and environmental rights (ESCER) under Article 26 ACHR with respect to the dominant trend that emerges from the reconstruction of the 31 cases decided since 2017. From this reconstruction, it emerges that the IACtHR divides its argumentation into five argumentative steps to directly assess violations of ESCER and it is similar to that applied in cases on the human right to a healthy environment. This allows us to argue that, for the time being, the recognition of the human right to a healthy environment by the IACtHR as an autonomous ESCER (Art. 26 ACHR), both as an individual and collective one and also, in its double conception as a human right of individuals and as a right of nature, has not presented major methodological challenges for the ESCER five step methodology; and that it can be at the same time sufficiently porous to adress the complexities stemming from the great challenges for the human rights agenda emerging from the planetary environmental crisis. Información suministrada por el agente en SIGEVA