ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to consider the question of how constitutional democracies can and should protect present and future interests by means of constitutional environmental rights. I will argue that constitutional democracies should constitutionalize judicially enforceable environmental rights. However, I will argue that certain procedural rights that govern legislative procedures are more desirable from a normative point of view than substantive constitutional environmental rights. One important problem with substantive rights – such as a right to a healthy environment – is that they tend to be very vague. This vagueness or indeterminacy makes the judicial enforcement of such rights problematic with regard to central democratic values and rule of law values.
