The Scope of Application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights Regarding National Climate Protection Law and its Potential for Climate Litigation

Abstract

European environmental and climate law has a notorious enforcement problem in the Member States. This is because many EU countries’ systems on legal standing are based on the infrigement of individual rights, whereas EU environmental law primarily protects public interests. The thesis of this work is that this enforcement deficit can be combated with the help of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR), in particular its procedural fundamental right laid down in Article 47(1) CFR. For this purpose, the work analyses the interplay between EU and national climate protection law and attempts to derive ‘shades’ of this interplay which can be used when examining the applicability of the Charter (II.). To this end, the case law regarding the assessment of whether national law is ‘implementing Union law’ (Article 51(1) CFR) of the Court of Justice of the European Union is outlined (III.). To illustrate the potential (procedural) effects of the Charter for climate litigation — its core procedural right — the right to an effective remedy in Article 47(1) CFR and its impact within environmental law is presented (IV.). The final chapter ultimately sets out the potential procedural and substantive effects of the applicability of the Charter for climate related lawsuits (V.).