Sustainability issues relating to the right to the environment

Moral concepts against an overly anthropocentric interpretation

Abstract

More than a hundred state constitutions protect the right to the environment, which has now been recognised as an individual human right in regional human rights regimes and global international law. This last step was essential during the triple environmental crisis, but more is needed. This paper explores how we can build a substantive understanding of the right to the environment that is beyond a present-centred anthropocentric conception, using religious and other moral concepts. To address this objective, we will review the relevant manifestations of Catholic social teaching, particularly the first environmental encyclical, the 'Laudato Si!'. This will be complemented by other religions' views on humanity's role in creation and concepts of moral values found in international law. The research steps serve a threefold purpose: first, to establish the appropriate content of the right to the environment. Second, to compare the international legal background with the moral views examined, and third, to link the right to the environment to sustainable development in principle, with particular reference to the principle of inter- and intragenerational equity.