Paper short abstract:

Environmental rights are recognized in several national legal orders as well as in international treaties. Nonetheless, this progress stills limited by its anthropocentric perspectives. The rights of nature broaden entitlements and open way to create more protective standards at international level.

Paper long abstract:

Nowadays, environmental justice movements struggle, in the courts, for a full responsibility to be assumed by multinational corporations (MNCs) that caused ecological degradation. There are many challenges to guarantee an adequate compensation and restoration of affected ecosystems because large part of jurisprudence focuses only on human consequences of damages as health and economic aspects.

Hence, these important measures are not enough to punish and oblige MNCs finance environmental restoration policies. In a non-traditional-westerner worldview, the Ecuadorian and Bolivian civil societies as well as governments propose the rights of nature to reshape juridical systems, mainly in cases where jurisdictional competences are cross-border. Access to justice and effective protection are a fundamental core to sustainable development agenda. Therefore, the recognition of nature as subject of rights is necessary to include indigenous worldview – for example, the Pachamama concept – and attend grassroots environmental justice claims.

Jurisprudence and national constitutions reveal general principles of law that are accepted as a source of international law (Article 38 (1)(c) of the Statute of International Court of Justice). For this reason, the Ecuadorian and Bolivian constitutions, as well as the Tribunal Permanente por los Derechos de la Naturaleza, are a path to complete the gaps existent in international treaties and strengthen deep social justice.