Report Launch — From Litigation to Implementation: Framing Smart Remedies in Rights-Based Climate Litigation

Climate litigation has emerged as a transformative force in climate governance in the last decade, with domestic courts and international bodies increasingly recognising climate change impacts as violations of fundamental rights. Legal victories in courts, however, are not always implementation victories for effective climate action. 

This is the backdrop to the latest Bonavero Report 4/2025, From Litigation to Implementation: Framing Smart Remedies in Rights-Based Climate Litigation, authored by Dr Marcelo Lozada Gómez and Professor Başak Çalı (Head of Research, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford)

In their report, the authors map the emerging landscape of human rights-based climate remedies, analysing implementation barriers, and proposing a framework for “smart remedies” that seeks to close the gap between litigation and implementation in human rights-based climate litigation.

Please join us for the official launch of this report. Chaired by Professor Başak Çalı, the event will feature a presentation of the report by Marcelo Lozada Gomez with responses by Dr Corina Heri (Tilburg) and César Rodríguez-Garavito (NYU).

Marcelo Lozada Gómez is a Colombian-qualified lawyer and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Law from the University of Oxford. He currently works as a Climate Legal Risk Consultant at JS Global Advisory in London, where he advises companies and financial institutions on governance challenges arising from climate change and nature-related risks. 

César Rodríguez-Garavito is an Earth rights scholar, field lawyer, and founding director of the More-Than-Human (MOTH) Life Program at NYU School of Law. He is a Professor of Law and Director of the Earth Rights Research and Action (TERRA) Clinic at NYU Law. His work has advanced new ideas and legal actions on issues such as climate justice, Indigenous rights, and what he proposes to call “more-than-human rights” (rights of nature). 

His ongoing MOTH initiatives include a partnership with Project CETI on the legal implications of AI-assisted translation of sperm whale communication as well as collaborations with the Fungi Foundation and the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks on legal actions to protect the fungal kingdom of life. His recent publications include More-Than-Human Rights: An Ecology of Law, Thought and Narrative for Earthly Flourishing (NYU, ed.), and Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to Accelerate Climate Action (Cambridge University Press).

Corina Heri is assistant professor of constitutional and administrative law at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on regional and international human rights law and spans topics including climate litigation, intersectionality, and the role of courts. She is the co-deputy director for Europe of the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE) and regularly provides expert advice on rights-based climate cases.

Síofra O'Leary is a former Judge and President of the European Court of Human Rights (2015 – 2024). Prior to joining the European Court of Human Rights, she worked for almost two decades at the Court of Justice of the European Union in both judicial and administrative capacities.

In 2025-2026, she will attend New York University (NYU) as a Hauser/Remarque Global Fellow. She is also an Adjunct Full Professor at University College Dublin and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges).

Parallel to her work in the two European courts, Dr. O’Leary has published extensively on the protection of fundamental rights in EU law and under the ECHR, EU employment law, the free movement of persons and services, and EU citizenship generally.

Professor Başak Çalı leads research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford, where she is also professor of international law. Her extensive experience in legal academia and practice spans over two decades. Her research focuses on human rights in public international law, the European Convention on Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Treaties, comparative international human rights law, domestic enforcement of international law, implementation of human rights judgments, and the politics of human rights law. She is the principal investigator of ‘Deep Impact through Soft Jurisprudence? The Contribution of United Nations Treaty Body Case Law to the Development of International Human Rights Law’ (German Science Council 2023-2026) and co-investigator of ‘Frames: Framing Reality and Normativity in European Human Rights Law: Climate Change, Migration, and Authoritarianism (Volkswagen Foundation 2023-2025). She litigates and acts as a legal advisor in cases before the European Court of Human Rights. She has over twenty years of experience in training judges, lawyers, prosecutors, police officers, and civil society on the European Convention on Human Rights and the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.