From Sustainable Development to the Rights of Nature: Mutually Integrated Legal Ways to Protect Environment

This short philosophical-legal analysis focuses on sustainable development and the rights of Nature as mutually integrated legal ways to protect Nature. It is divided into three parts and is based on the conceptual analysis and on a thought-provoking rethink of the relationship between Law and Nature as a way to successfully achieve effective sustainable development. In the first part, the paper reconstructs the legal history of sustainable development to recognize the original ethical vision that should have inspired the current legal regulations on environmental issues. The endeavor is to highlight the promises and the unfulfilled expectations arising because of the current reductionist implementation of sustainable development as against what was originally envisioned. In the second part, the paper addresses the increasing attempts to recognize the rights of Nature by referring to court decisions and constitutional changes in different countries around the world. The paper aims at supporting this emerging legal trend, which is increasingly shared also in Europe, as testified by the 2019 Study by the European Economic and Social Committee titled Towards an EU Charter of the Fundamental Rights of Nature. In the conclusive remarks, it is argued that the abovementioned trend is not alternative but complementary to the best implementation of sustainable development. It deserves attention as its global acceptance could produce virtuous effects for the implementation of sustainable development in line with the original ethical vision. Thus, it can significantly contribute to elevating moral standards, which are a prerequisite for any moral change in our attitudes towards the environment.