constitutional environmental rights feb 2005

[...]...x C ONTENTS 6.2 Constitutional environmental rights viewed from the normative perspective of global justice 6.3 The value of constitutional environmental rights for poorer societies 6.3.1 The need for environmental rights is not nullified by imperatives of development 6.3.2 Illustrations of permeability in practice 6.3.3 Poorer countries in the avant garde of environmental human rights jurisprudence... solely procedural rights (such as rights to information, access to justice, and to environmental decision-making) In what follows I shall first show why the rationale for constitutional environmental protection suggests but does not strictly entail a case for constitutional environmental rights; I shall then show why the evident linkages between environmental protection and human rights suggest, but... firmly secured if constitutional provision for environmental protection has the form of a right Rights in principle correspond to the most stringent form of constitutional imperative, and can 8 C ONSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS thus best embody the importance of environmental protection: a substantive environmental right would mark the seriousness of environmental concern, giving environmental quality... possible to secure those same rights for themselves Indeed, as an 22 CONSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS indication that in poorer states there is a recognition of the importance of constitutional environmental rights, it is noted that some of the most important precedents in this field have been set in such states I thus conclude that the constitutionalizing of environmental rights can be expected to... circumstances issue in environmental rights for citizens, the protections they offer nevertheless fall short of what might be expected of a substantive environmental right with constitutional force The environmental protections afforded by human rights law are also considered, but here too it is shown that while there is some scope for invoking non -environmental human rights for environmental ends, and... relating to human rights in general and environmental rights in particular, the recognition of environmental rights even in richer states can contribute to the development of international norms that would require respect for the environmental rights of people globally This leaves the issue of whether the constitutional enhancement of citizens’ environmental rights in richer and more powerful states... Report’s draft Principles on Human Rights and the Environment (see pp 29–31 below) reformulate existing rights such as life and health so as to develop their environmental dimensions However, examples of courts that have inferred or derived environmental rights from non -environmental rights provisions reveal that—since environmental protection is not the intended aim of the rights in question —the inference... may pursue an environmental national interest at the expense of environmental interests of others A disadvantaged state might have relatively little capacity to protect its citizens’ environmental rights against environmental threats even when these are domestically generated, while more powerful states may be able to enhance their citizens’ environmental rights by effectively exporting environmental. .. whether the focus on constitutional environmental INTRO DUCT I O N 21 rights tends generally to perpetuate an inappropriately statecentric approach to environmental problems; and whether this approach specifically tends to reinforce the environmental rights of citizens of rich and powerful states at the expense of those of poorer nations I show to begin with that the focus on environmental rights at the level... ONSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS legitimacy of social rights might be applied in suppot of environmental rights I suggest, though, that because such arguments are somewhat problematic in their own terms and because, more crucially, there are also important differences between environmental and social rights, a separate line of defence could be more appropriate Thus I seek to show how substantive environmental . Democratic rights 139 4.2.1. Democracy’s ‘self-binding’ rights: procedural rights 140 4.2.2. Environmental procedural rights 143 4.3. Substantive environmental rights as democratic rights 145 4.4. Environmental. 119 3.5. The effectiveness of a constitutional right to an adequate environment 124 4 . Environmental Rights as Democratic Rights 129 4.1. Are constitutional rights inherently undemocratic?.