ABSTRACT
Under the pressure of social activism and scientists’ warnings, environmental law is going through a slow but highly innovative process of revision, characterized by an ecosystem approach. The author identifies two new trends: the recognition of Nature as a subject of rights and the claim of a (human or constitutional) right to a stable climate, capable of ensuring our survival on the planet. Nature’s rights and climate change case-law are analysed, in order to pinpoint the judge’s arguments supporting an ecosystemic shift of the environmental legal paradigm. Finally, both solutions are compared, underlining that there is a core difference between the intercultural approach to Nature in the Global South, and a more traditional science-focused approach to the environment in the Global North.
