Rights of nature as an alternative or a complement to existing environmental protection

Julián Suárez

doi:10.25167/osap.5340

Published: 2024-07-17

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2024)

Rights of nature as an alternative or a complement to existing environmental protection

Julián Suárez

The Opole Studies in Administration and Law

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.25167/osap.5340

Abstract

One of the most refined expressions of rights-based approaches to environmental protection, rights of nature have come a long way since the early 2000s. They have developed into full-fledged governance structures that could either improve or potentially replace duty-based existing environmental protection within domestic jurisdictions. However, even though they advance sustainable development values, both eco-theological and local participative governance strands of rights of nature have encountered shortcomings; several of them particularly related with the scope of protection derived from their explicit content. From a legal analysis perspective, a predominantly doctrinal and comparative approach can contribute to shedding light on rights of nature legal potency. Preliminary conclusions would
show that from a legal analysis under this approach comprising four European domestic rights of nature legal frameworks, a bundle of indicators can be extracted to determine whether a certain rights of nature provision could be discarded as capable of enhancing or even substituting existing environmental protection

Keywords:

rights of nature, rights-based approach, effectiveness, eco-theological rights, local participative governance

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Suárez, J. (2024). Rights of nature as an alternative or a complement to existing environmental protection. The Opole Studies in Administration and Law, 22(1), 87–117. https://doi.org/10.25167/osap.5340

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