ABSTRACT
Environmental constitutionalism is a relatively recent phenomenon at the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law. It demonstrates that the environment is a proper subject for protection in constitutional texts and for vindication by constitutional courts worldwide. This entry provides an overview of the extent to which countries have adopted constitutional protections to protect the environment either for people or for its own sake, focusing on the origins, establishment, and emergence of environmental constitutionalism around the globe. This entry also considers the extent to which constitutional or apex courts around the world have vindicated constitutional environmental rights, examining the reasons why courts have been reluctant to engage with these provisions, and the modes of interpretation and the results when they do. From the courts’ perspective, the challenges are daunting: vindicating these rights compels the courts to become technical and scientific experts in ecology and in the industrial exploitation of natural resources, it thrusts courts into the political quagmires usually involving powerful political and industrial interests, and it often requires courts to interpret and apply opaque constitutional language on an almost blank precedential slate. And yet, it is becoming increasingly clear that a constitutional environmental right can not only change the outcome in a case, but can change the way legislators balance competing interests and, ultimately, can change the way people think about their rights to a quality environment.
