AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS

The brief contends that a stable climate system is a necessary precondition for the exercise of fundamental rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property. It supports this position by citing international agreements, including the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC, as well as jurisprudence from foreign courts and U.S. state constitutions that link environmental health to human rights.

• The brief argues that the district court's recognition of a right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is consistent with the principle that certain unenumerated rights are "fundamental to our ordered scheme of liberty."
• The United States and other nations have formally acknowledged the link between climate change and human rights through the Paris Agreement, the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, and the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), with the United States joining the consensus, has affirmed that climate change adversely impacts the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to life.
• International human rights bodies, such as the U.N. Human Rights Committee and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, interpret the right to life broadly to include the protection of a dignified life and protection from environmental harm.
• Courts in several countries have established a legal link between a healthy environment and the right to life, including the Lahore High Court in Pakistan, the Hague District Court in the Netherlands, and various courts in India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Costa Rica.
• The brief notes a global trend in constitutional law, stating that over half of the world's nations include environmental references in their constitutions, and more than ninety include substantive rights to a healthy environment.
• Within the United States, nearly half of state constitutions contain environmental provisions, and at least sixteen recognize substantive constitutional rights to a healthy, stable, or quality environment.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2017). AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/OCT-amicus-brief-2017.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS. 2017. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/OCT-amicus-brief-2017.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS |date=5 September 2017 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/OCT-amicus-brief-2017.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2017amicus, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2017}, month = sep, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/OCT-amicus-brief-2017.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }