while the Court found it had no jurisdiction over the other states. Similarly, in Carême v. France, the individual application of a French citizen acting personally and as former mayor of a French municipality particularly exposed to climate effects was declared inadmissible due to a lack of victim status, since the applicant no longer resided in France38. The Grand Chamber’s rulings open highly significant prospects for the development of a uniform European environmental jurisprudence, which could greatly strengthen the legal protection of the right to a healthy environment in all 47 ECHR member states. They also confirm the emergence of a new jurisprudential paradigm in which courts take on an active role as guarantors in the face of state inaction or inadequacy39. As noted by scholars, climate litigation represents a form of judicial substitution that fills the gaps left by political inaction, while also highlighting the limitations of traditional democratic governance in addressing global and intergenerational challenges. In this perspective, climate litigation is not merely a tool for judicial protection, but a true catalyst for the doctrinal development of the right to a healthy environment, contributing to its recognition as a fully enforceable and justiciable fundamental right. V. THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT IN EUROPE: FROM THE EU LEGAL FRAMEWORK TO ITALY’S CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM The right to a healthy environment is one of the foundational pillars of the contemporary European legal architecture, emerging as a cross-cutting principle that permeates the entire normative framework of the European Union. This right finds its primary codification in Article 37 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union40, which states that “a high level of environmental protection and the improvement of the quality of the environment must be integrated into the policies of the Union and ensured in accordance with the principle of sustainable development.” 38 ECtHR, Grand Chamber, 9 April 2024, Carême v. France, appl. no. 7189/21, available at https://hudoc.echr. coe.int/eng?i=001-233174. 39 P. Pustorino, op. cit., p. 1922 ff. 40 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, proclaimed in Nice on 7 December 2000 and adapted in Strasbourg on 12 December 2007, OJ EU C 364 of 18.12.2000, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A12012P%2FTXT 137 THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT
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