This contribution examines strategic climate litigation as a mechanism for advancing the rights of climate-affected migrants and displaced communities in the absence of a dedicated, binding international legal status. It situates “climate mobility” within a fragmented normative landscape spanning refugee law, international human rights law, climate governance, and soft-law instruments, and argues that many of the most complex cases fail not for lack of factual credibility, but because climate harm resists translation into doctrines built around persecution, individualisation, imminence, and narrow causal narratives. Through analysis of landmark decisions and quasi-judicial processes, including Teitiota v New Zealand, Daniel Billy et al. v Australia, Sacchi et al. v Argentina et al., selected national jurisprudence across Europe and the Americas, and the 2025 advisory opinions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice, this contribution maps both the possibilities and limits of current legal pathways.
New Paper: When Climate Forces Movement – The Rise of Strategic Litigation for Climate Migrants
