Verfassungsblog (Feb 2023)
Towards European Rights of Nature
Abstract
On 24th February, Marie-Christine Fuchs on this blog discussed the 2022 Spanish Mar Menor Act – the first rights of nature case in Europe – in light of Latin American precedents and the criticism the Act is facing from right-wing populists in Spain. Whether the Act remains the first law in Europe granting rights to a non-human natural entity will now be decided by the Spanish Constitutional Court. In her analysis of the socio-legal foundations of the Mar Menor Act, Fuchs argues that it had a “more fragile argumentative basis” than precedents in Latin America. In contrast, this article argues that the Spanish legislator succeeded in placing the Mar Menor Act on its own argumentative footing, thus opening the door for a genuinely Western liberal conception and implementation of rights of nature in Europe.
