Dr. Maria Antonia Tigre

Dr. Maria Antonia is the Director of Global Climate Change Litigation at the Sabin Center. She manages the Sabin Center's Global Climate Change Litigation Database and coordinates Peer Review Network of Climate Litigation, a global network of legal experts who contribute to the database and analysis of emerging cases. Her work focuses on comparative climate litigation, the role of international law in climate governance, and the interaction between climate change and human rights.

Her research examines key developments in global climate litigation, including litigation in the Global South, corporate accountability, climate-related damages and remedies, and the role of courts and tribunals in addressing climate change. She has also written extensively on the evolving jurisprudence of international and regional courts, including the recent advisory opinions on climate change issued by international tribunals. Her publications explore how international environmental law, human rights law, and the law of state responsibility intersect in the context of climate harm.

Prior to joining the Sabin Center, Dr. Tigre worked as a Senior Attorney in the Environment Program at the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, where she provided pro bono legal assistance to civil society organizations worldwide on issues related to protected areas and the intersection of human rights and the environment. She previously held a fellowship at the World Resources Institute and practiced law in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dr. Tigre has authored numerous academic publications on climate litigation and international environmental law, with particular attention to the protection of the Amazon and the role of courts in addressing climate harm. She regularly speaks at international conferences and academic institutions on climate litigation and global environmental governance.

She holds a Doctorate in Juridical Studies (S.J.D.) from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. She also earned a dual LL.M., magna cum laude, in Environmental Law and Comparative Legal Studies from Pace University, and an LL.B. from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.

 

  • The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change (Verfassungsbooks, 2025) (Maria Antonia Tigre, Maxim Bönnemann & Antoine De Spiegeler eds.) (link)
  • Maria Antonia Tigre, Chapter 13, “The Rights of Access to Justice,” in Climate Justice and Human Rights: Legal Standards and Tools from the Inter-American Court’s Advisory Opinion 32/25 (IACtHR & Open Society Justice Initiative, 2025).
  • Brazil and Climate Justice: Pioneering Climate Litigation for a Global Cause (Brill½Nijhoff, 2025) (Maria Antonia Tigre, Armando Rocha & Délton Winter de Carvalho eds.) (link)
  • The Role of Advisory Opinions in International Law in the Context of the Climate Crisis (Brill½Nijhoff, forthcoming 2025) (Maria Antonia Tigre & Armando Rocha eds.) (link)
  • Climate Litigation and Vulnerabilities: Global South Perspectives (Routledge, 2025) (Maria Antonia Tigre, Melanie Murcott & Susan Ann Samuels eds.) (link)
  • Maria Antonia Tigre & Thalia Viveros-Uechara, The Inter-American Human Rights Systems and Climate Litigation, in Climate Change Before International Courts: A Comparative Study (Carla Amado Gomes, Heloísa Oliveira, Armando Rocha & Matteo Fermeglia eds., Routledge 2025).
  • Maria Antonia Tigre & Katherine Quinn, Trends in Human Rights Law-Making: the Implications of ‘Norming’ Climate Climate Rights, Human Rights and Investment Law for Climate Change (B. Martinez Romera et al., eds., Edward Elgar, 2025)
  • Maria Antonia Tigre & Armando Rocha, The Role of Advisory Opinions in International Law in the Context of the Climate Crisis: An Introduction, in The Role of Advisory Opinions in International Law in the Context of the Climate Crisis 1 (Maria Antonia Tigre & Armando Rocha eds., Brill 2025).
  • Armando Rocha & Maria Antonia Tigre, Finding the ‘Rosetta Stone’? Concluding Remarks on the Role of Advisory Opinions in International Law in the Context of the Climate Crisis, in The Role of Advisory Opinions in International Law in the Context of the Climate Crisis 326 (Maria Antonia Tigre & Armando Rocha eds., Brill 2025).
  • Melanie Jean Murcott, Maria Antonia Tigre & Susan Ann Samuel, Introduction: Linking Global South Vulnerability, Intersectionality, and Climate Litigation, in Climate Litigation and Vulnerabilities: Global South Perspectives (Maria Antonia Tigre, Melanie Jean Murcott & Susan Ann Samuel eds., 2025) (Routledge).
  • The Transformation of European Climate Litigation (Verfassungsbooks, 2024) (Maxim Bönnemann & Maria Antonia Tigre eds.) (link)
  • Lea Main-Klingst, Hermann E. Ott and Maria Antonia Tigre, Beyond Protest: How Legal Actions Drive Climate Justice, Routledge Handbook on Global Climate Activism (S. von Mering, T. Bell, A. da Silva Faustino, W. Steele, A. Ward and M. Arjona Soberón, eds., Routledge, 2024)
  • Maria Antonia Tigre, The Right to a Healthy Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean: Compliance through the Inter-American System and the Escazú Agreement,International Courts versus Non-compliance Mechanism (C. Voigt and C. Foster, ed., Cambridge University Press, 2024) (link)
  • Erin Daly, Maria Antonia Tigre, and Natalia Urzola, Common but differentiated constitutionalisms: Does ‘environmental constitutionalism’ offer realistic policy options for improving UN environmental law and governance? US and Latin American perspectives, 172 Constitutionalism, Transnational Governance Failures And Policy Responses (E.-Ulrich Petersmann and A. Steinbach, ed., Brill/Nijhoff, 2024) (link)
  • From State to Corporate Liability in Climate Litigation: How Can Urgenda-type Cases Inform the Responsibility of Private Companies to Mitigate Climate Change?,” Climate change litigation in Europe: Regional, Comparative and Sectoral Perspectives 349 (I. Alogna et al., eds., Intersentia, 2023)
  • Competing Perspectives and Dialogue in Climate Change Advisory Opinions, 117 AJIL Unbound 227 (with A. Rocha) (2023) (link)
  • The ‘Fair Share’ of Climate Mitigation: Can Litigation Increase National Ambition for Brazil?, Journal of Human Rights Practice (2023) (link)
  • What would a favorable ICJ AO look like and what would it mean for the progressive development of international law and broadly for climate action?, 1(1) Environmental Rights Review 41-44 (2023) (link)
  • Beyond the North-South divide: Litigation’s role in resolving climate change loss and damage claims Rev. of Eur., Comp. and Int’l Env’t L. (2023) (link) (with M. Wewerinke-Singh)
  • International Recognition of the Right to a Healthy Environment: What is the Added Value for Latin America and the Caribbean?, Am. J. of Int’l L. Unbound (2023) (link)
  • Transnational Insights for Climate Litigation at the European Court of Human Rights: A South-North Perspective in Pursuit of Climate Justice, 56 VRÜ | WCL 299 (2023) (link) (with M. Murcott and N. Zimmerman)
  • Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School & United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (2023) (with M. Burger)
  • Katelyn Horne, Maria Antonia Tigre and Michael Gerrard, Status Report on Principles of International and Human Rights Law Relevant to Climate Change (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, 2023), available at https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/3924/.
  • Maria Antonia Tigre, Lorena Zenteno, Marlies Hesselman, Natalia Urzola, Pedro Cisterna-Gaete, Riccardo Luporini, Just Transition Litigation in Latin America: An Initial Categorization of Climate Litigation Cases Amid the Energy Transition (Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, January 2023), available at https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/197/.
  • Climate Litigation in Latin America: Is the region quietly leading a regional revolution?, 14(1) J. Hum. Rts. & Envt. 67–93 (2023) (link) (with N. Urzola and A. Goodman)
  • Climate Change and Indigenous Groups: The Rise of Indigenous Voices in Climate Litigation, 9(3) E-Publica 214 (2022) (link)
  • Reframing Global Biodiversity Protection after COVID-19: Is International Environmental Law up to the task?, 23 Vermont Envt. L. J. 123 (with N. Urzola and V. Lichet) (2022) (link)
  • Indigenous Communities of the Lhaka Honhat (Our Land) Association v. Argentina, 115(4) Am. J. Int’l L. 706 (2021) (link)
  • COVID-19 and Amazonia: Right-based approaches for the pandemic response, 30(2) Rev. of Eur., Comp. and Int’l Env’t L. 162 (2021) (link)
  • The 2017 Inter-American Court’s Advisory Opinion: changing the paradigm for international environmental law in the Anthropocene, 12(1) J. Hum. Rts. & Envt. 24 (with N. Urzola) (2021) (link)
  • A Voice in the Development of Amazonia: The Constitutional Rights to Participation of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Amazonia, Regional Development and Territorial Dynamics: Contentious Issues (I.B. de Lima et al., eds., Springer, 2020) (with S.C. Slinger) (link)
  • Implementing Constitutional Environmental Rights in the Amazon Rainforest, Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism: Current Global Challenges (E. Daly and J. May, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2019) (link)
  • Gaps in International Environmental Law: Toward a Global Pact for the Environment (ELI Press, 2020) (link)
  • Regional Cooperation in Amazonia: A Comparative Environmental Law Analysis (Brill Nijhoff, 2017) (link)
  • Trends in Climate Justice Litigation: The Dutch Case and Global Repercussions, Climate Justice: Case Studies in Global and Regional Governance Challenges (R.S. Abate, ed., ELI Press, 2016) (with J. Huang) (link)

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