Environmental Constitutionalism: Aspiration or Transformation?

Abstract

A striking feature of environmental constitutional provisions is that state obligations are predominantly entrenched using contrajudicative provisions: provisions, such as directive principles, that are designed to be given effect by the political branches and not by direct judicial enforcement. Yet, scholarship to date has largely focused on the direct judicial enforcement of environmental constitutional rights. This article argues that a rights-focused approach is misguided. Correctly understood, environmental constitutionalism presents an alternative to existing, rights-based models of social values constitutionalism within the legal constitutionalist tradition: the “contrajudicative mode..