Presentation. The transition from environmental protection to the climate emergency: challenges for constitutional democracies

Abstract

This special issue examines how the climate emergency is ceasing to be a mere backdrop and is becoming a normative driver reshaping core categories of constitutionalism: positive obligations, standing, evidentiary rules, judicial review, and the allocation of powers in multilevel systems. The contributions highlight the growing role of domestic and international adjudication in response to inadequate public action, with reference to recent national, supranational, and international case law. Bringing together approaches from different legal disciplines, the articles collected here analyse the shift towards a qualified, global form of environmental protection compatible with the principles of constitutional democracies.