Dataset Klimaseniorinnen_ICJ: Data on how the Klimaseniorinnen judgment of the European Court of Human Rights was used by states and international organisations during the proceedings for the Climate Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice

Dataset on References to the Klimaseniorinnen Ruling in the ICJ Climate Advisory Opinion Proceedings

Dataset descriptionThis dataset was compiled in the course of writing the chapter “The Klimaseniorinnen ruling as authority in the proceedings for the ICJ Climate Advisory Opinion”, published in Sandrine Maljean‑Dubois (ed.), Science and Expertise in Climate Litigation: Construction and Strategic Use, Brill.The dataset identifies whether and how states and international organisations participating in the proceedings for the ICJ Climate Advisory Opinion referred to the Klimaseniorinnen judgment.

Sources and scopeThe dataset draws on three categories of material from the ICJ Climate Advisory Opinion proceedings:

Written submissions submitted by states and international organisations

Written transcripts (comptes rendus) of the oral arguments

Written answers to judges’ questions submitted after the hearings

Annexes to these documents are excluded. All source documents are publicly available on the International Court of Justice’s website.The dataset covers materials submitted during both the March 2024 and August 2024 submission rounds and subsequent oral proceedings in December 2024.

Dataset contentFor outputs, the dataset records:

Whether the Klimaseniorinnen ruling is cited

The identity of the state or international organisation

Whether the state is a member of the Council of Europe

For written submissions: the relevant submission round (March 2024 or August 2024)

Whether the reference to the judgment is affirmative or dismissive

qualitative notes on the content of the reference

File structureThe dataset is organised into Excel (.xlsx) files structured as follows:

Separate sheets for each category of output:

Written submissions

Oral pleadings

Answers to judges’ questions

Additional sheets compiling summary figures

A consolidated sheet counting the total number of actors referring to the ruling, without duplication (a state or IO could mention the ruling several times across outputs, so duplicates had to be identified to arrive at the number of actors referring to the judgment)

Methodological notesClassification of references (e.g. affirmative versus dismissive) reflects the author’s interpretive assessment, based on the content and context of each reference. The dataset records the presence and nature of references but does not evaluate their legal correctness or normative weight.Further methodological detail is provided in Section II of the published chapter. The interpretation of the author of the data is the core of the published chapter.

Legal contextThe Klimaseniorinnen ruling is a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (Grand Chamber, 9 April 2024):https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-233206The ICJ Climate Advisory Opinion was issued on 23 July 2025 in response to a United Nations General Assembly resolution requesting clarification of states’ obligations in relation to climate change:https://www.icj-cij.org/case/187

Author and metadata

Author: Evelyne SchmidAffiliation: University of LausanneDate: Created in early 2026Version status: Stable dataset (no further updates planned)

Recommended citationSchmid, Evelyne. (2026). Dataset on references to the Klimaseniorinnen ruling in the ICJ Climate Advisory Opinion proceedings. Zenodo. [10.5281/zenodo.20000734]

File formatData are provided in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format and can be opened using Excel, LibreOffice, or equivalent software.