Abstract
Advisory Opinion No. 32/25 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights marks a critical turning point in contemporary international law by recognizing the obligation not to cause irreversible harm to the climate as a peremptory norm (jus cogens). This formulation transcends the traditional boundaries of environmental law by addressing systemic risks and irreversible dynamics that define the current climate crisis. This paper examines the implications of this legal innovation across three interconnected dimensions. First, in the analytical dimension, it explores how the notion of climate jus cogens challenges classical categories of sovereignty and responsibility, moving the law toward a more adaptive logic attuned to planetary-scale phenomena. Second, from a normative perspective, it analyzes the ethical and legal foundations of this obligation, framing climate protection as a precondition for the continuity of both human and non-human life. Finally, within a transformative dimension, it considers how this recognition may reshape international governance by opening space for non-anthropocentric epistemologies, such as the Rights of Nature and Indigenous worldviews, which offer alternative regulatory horizons. The argument advanced is that AO-32/25 inaugurates a new legal grammar in which climate protection becomes a structuring principle of the international order. Climate jus cogens thus emerges as a theoretical and normative tool to confront the instability and unpredictability that characterize the Anthropocene, signaling pathways toward a more integrated and just form of global governance.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—Unseen Unsustainability: Addressing Hidden Risks to Long-Term Wellbeing for All
KEYWORDS
ADVISORY OPNION, INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS, CLIMATE CHANGE
