ABSTRACT
Motivated by insights from mainly South Asian concepts of holistic interconnectedness of the individual, in various culture-specific forms, this rallying call for taking human suffering seriously proposes the necessity to go beyond Baxian concepts of people-centric ‘demosprudence’. The urgent need, specifically, is to recognise that ‘development’ in the Anthropocene will continue to force certain victims to lose their lands, habitat, livelihood and much else, necessitating fair compensation for such sacrifices. As a deeply interdisciplinary field of activity, environmental constitutionalism thus needs to cultivate plurality-conscious understanding of justice-focused co-ordination of cultural, religious and ethical values, law-related principles and rules, and effective tools of enforcement. A blueprint for this already exists in Indian law, with its constitutionally anchored principle of ‘complete justice’, a cosmoprudential principle that is already inspiring neighbouring jurisdictions, needs to be promulgated globally, in theory as well as practice, and seems to recommend itself for use as a legal transplant elsewhere.
