Constitutionalizing Environmental Rights: A Practical Guide

This policy note presents a brief summary of recent quantitative and qualitative research covering: (1) some of the factors associated with country-level adoption of constitutional environmental rights provisions; (2) the subsequent correlations between constitutional environmental rights provisions and environmental and human rights outcomes; and (3) ‘good’ practices in the implementation of constitutional environmental rights. The evidence suggests that, once constitutionalized, environmental rights are positively correlated with environmental and human rights outcomes. Anecdotal accounts also highlight the various ways in which environmental rights have been successfully implemented in different national contexts. This note is thus useful for practitioners because it provides a framework through which one could advocate for or against a particular path to constitutionalizing environmental rights, and offers specific guidance on how environmental rights can be utilized to protect both humans and the natural environment.