Learning from Constitutional Environmental Rights

Daly E, May JR. Learning from Constitutional Environmental Rights. In: Knox JH, Pejan R, eds. The Human Right to a Healthy Environment. Cambridge University Press; 2018:42-58.

Posted: 15 Nov 2024 Last revised: 11 Dec 2024

See all articles by James R. May

James R. May

Washburn University - Washburn University School of Law; Widener University Delaware Law School; Haub School of Law at Pace University

Erin Daly

Widener University Delaware Law School

Date Written: January 01, 2018

Abstract

This chapter examines how national environmental constitutionalism can contribute to the development of an international human right to a healthful environment. We suggest that the lessons learned in forty years of domestic environmental constitutionalism can inspire and inform considerations concerning an international environmental right's meaning, scope, and enforceability. More than one-half of the countries in the world have incorporated environmental rights constitutionally, leading to thoughtful consideration about what environmental rights mean and how to enhance their effectiveness. In addition to these substantive environmental rights, constitutions also guarantee procedural requirements, establish reciprocal duties of public and private actors to protect the environment, and announce policy objectives and fundamental values relating to environmental protection. Given the existing environmental human rights obligations on states, the question is whether an international human right to a healthful environment is warranted. We believe that such a right has the potential to advance environmental protection for two principal reasons. First, as a legal matter, a human right to a healthy environment would impose supra-national obligations on states to observe or protect rights that otherwise may not be reflected in domestic law or in regional instruments.' As a normative matter, establishing such a right would confirm the interdependence and the indivisibility of human and environmental rights.

Keywords: Environmental Rights, Human Rights, Constitutionalism

Suggested Citation

May, James and Daly, Erin, Learning from Constitutional Environmental Rights (January 01, 2018). Daly E, May JR. Learning from Constitutional Environmental Rights. In: Knox JH, Pejan R, eds. The Human Right to a Healthy Environment. Cambridge University Press; 2018:42-58., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4998850

James May (Contact Author)

Washburn University - Washburn University School of Law ( email )

1700 SW College Ave.
Topeka, KS 66621
United States

Widener University Delaware Law School ( email )

4601 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE 19803-0406
United States

Haub School of Law at Pace University ( email )

78 N. Broadway
White Plains, NY 10603
United States

Erin Daly

Widener University Delaware Law School ( email )

4601 Concord Pike
Wilmington, DE 19803-0406
United States
302-477-2143 (Phone)
304-477-2257 (Fax)

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