The EUNMUTE Research Seminar series is part of the activities of EUNMUTE ERASMUS+ Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence’s. It aims to foster an interdisciplinary conversation through the presentation of academic research on the issues at the heart of the Un-Muting Europe (EUNMUTE). Seminars will be alternately dedicated to five of the most important challenges of our times: (i) rule of law; (ii) inclusiveness; (iii) climate; (iv) digital transformations; (v) democracy.

Programme

Sacha Garben (Professor of EU Law, College of Europe) 

Discussion: Maxime Gaborit (Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles) & Antoine Bailleux (Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles)

The seminar will explore the role of the judiciary in general, and of the CJEU in particular, in the context of climate change litigation. The Dutch Supreme Court in the Urgenda ruling held that fundamental human rights (Articles 2, 8 and 13 ECHR; rights to life, family life and access to justice) obliged the Dutch State to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from Dutch soil by at least 25% compared to 1990 in 2020. On the other hand, the CJEU rejected the People’s Climate Case in Carvalho and others. A number of crucial cases is currently pending before the ECHR. This begs the question about the appropriate level of judicial review in a (transnational) constitutional democracy in relation to the environment. Sacha Garben argues that democratic constitutionalism warrants an active role for both national and transnational courts to correct the democratic failures inherent in (nation-based) majoritarianism.

Sacha Garben is Professor of EU law at the Legal Studies Department of the College of Europe. She is furthermore an official in the European Commission, currently on leave to be at the College of Europe full time. Since 2020, she also sits as a replacement Judge at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal. She has published widely on a range of constitutional and substantive aspects of EU law. Her recent work explores the legitimacy of the EU as a transnational Constitutional Democracy.

Discussion: Maxime Gaborit (Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles) & Antoine Bailleux (Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles)

>>> Online participation possible (on Teams): here

>>> Registration here 

Inscription obligatoire