Constitutional Conversations in the Anthropocene: In Search of Environmental Jus Cogens Norms

Abstract

This chapter investigates the existence of environmental jus cogens norms and the possibility of extending peremptory norms into the environmental domain. For this purpose, the chapter briefly describes the trite manifestation and use of jus cogens in international law. It then surveys the current doctrinal state of the art to determine to what extent it could be said that certain norms may or may not have attained the status of jus cogens in the international environmental law (IEL) domain. The latter analysis is then extended to present the reasons for and possible obstacles currently countering, from a theoretical and practical point of view, the adoption of environmental jus cogens norms. The final part of the chapter follows a re-imaginary approach to determine which IEL norms could in future qualify for jus cogens status through the lens of the informally proposed Anthropocene geological epoch.