Constitutional Environmental Rights

Abstract

Over the last several decades there has been a noticeable increase in constitutional reform in the area of environmental human rights. Over 150 countries now include some form of environmental right or duty in their constitutions. These provisions can be understood to form a spectrum from aspirational yet legally weak provisions on one end, ranging through to explicit individual and collective rights, supported by clearly articulated duties and strong judicial oversight, at the other. Some constitutions even grant rights to nature itself, representing a significant move beyond anthropocentric rights and towards a more ecocentric understanding of our relationship with the natural world. This chapter presents an analysis of this body of law, noting the common themes and seeking to identify some of the factors which may have contributed to the pace of this movement for constitutional change. In doing so, it aims to address the ultimate question of whether constitutional environmental rights might provide evidence of a customary environmental right which would be enshrined in international law and binding on all States. This question will be picked up again in Chap. 4, where the status of the right to a good environment will be explored in more detail.