Minahil Wahid

How do international legal instruments, principles, and doctrines influence, support, or limit domestic climate litigation in Pakistan?

This project examines the impact of international legal instruments, principles, and doctrines on domestic climate litigation in Pakistan. It examines how human rights treaties (ICCPR, ICESCR), environmental agreements (UNFCCC, Paris Agreement), and principles such as the precautionary principle, public trust, and intergenerational justice are invoked, adapted, or resisted by Pakistani courts. Framed through the lens of legal pluralism, the study explores how constitutional rights, Islamic principles, and international norms intersect in shaping climate jurisprudence. It aims to identify the opportunities and limits of using international legal frameworks in Pakistan’s context, highlighting the country’s distinctive rights-heavy and hybrid judicial approach. By analysing both explicit and implicit forms of climate litigation, the research contributes to understanding how international law shapes domestic climate responses in the Global South, while also situating Pakistan’s jurisprudence within global debates on climate justice.

Supervisors - Prof Francesco Sindico and Dr Stephanie Switzer

Email - minahil.wahid@strath.ac.uk