05 Oktober 2023
Slicing Away at Regulatory Statutes
In its June 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the Clean Water Act of 1972 to significantly cut back its water pollution protections and to hand an important victory to private property owners. Sackett is not simply important for its impact on environmental protection. Although it may be among the Court’s less visible recent rulings, it follows the Court’s trend of anti-administrativist rulings and may add importantly to the Court’s kit of anti-regulatory interpretive tools. Continue reading >>
0 
01 August 2023
Environmental Protest and Civil Disobedience in Australia
In Germany, disruptive protest demanding climate change mitigation policies has provoked popular and constitutional discussion. Commentators have questioned whether acts of illegality committed as civil disobedience should be treated distinctly from ‘ordinary’ criminality and punished more leniently. In other parts of the world, however, legislative activity has singled out the illegality involved in civil disobedience to the opposite end. Legislatures have introduced laws that radically increase penalties for existing offences involved in disruptive protest and blockades, conferred new powers on police, and created new offences for previously legal forms of protest. In this post I explore an Australian legislative trend of the last decade that specifically targets environmental civil disobedience by imposing additional criminal penalties upon its exercise. The Australian case study is a cautionary tale of what can follow a failure to recognise democratic value in civil disobedience and treat it with constitutional nuance. Continue reading >>
0
16 Mai 2023
Strawberry Fields Forever
Reading the brilliant blog post of my colleague Teresa Navarro, one may get the impression that the situation in Doñana is principally the epitome of an ongoing electoral process. However, the threats to the ecological integrity of that unique natural space emanate from the very origins that justified its protection. The current crisis is but the culmination of the constant and serious threats, caused by the proposed bill to legalize new irrigation and aggravated by incompetence and lack of responsibility of the state, regional and local authorities ignoring the requirements of EU law. Continue reading >>
0
09 Mai 2023
Of Red Fruits and Social Conflict
These days of electoral campaign in Spain, as usual, water is among the current issues. Recently, a controversial proposal by the conservative parties of the Andalusian Parliament aims to re-grant the status of agricultural land to certain land in the vicinity of the Doñana National Park (Huelva, Spain). Doñana suffers a long social conflict triggered by several decisions adopted to protect this singular place. As we will see, this is a clear example of the political use of the tension generated by environmental protection and socio-economic interests, especially in times of elections. Continue reading >>
0
24 Februar 2023
Rights of Nature Reach Europe
On September 30, 2022, the Spanish Senate approved the "Mar Menor Act" (Law 19/2022) which granted legal personality to the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin. Being the first legal text in Europe to recognize a natural entity as a subject of rights, it is one more piece in the mosaic of a global movement towards ecological justice, which tries to find strong legal answers in times of global ecological crisis. In fact, the Spanish landmark decision follows the precedents of countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, New Zealand, India and the United States. In this context, it is worth asking whether the legal and socio-cultural bases of the concept of the rights of nature, as developed in the aforementioned cases, especially in those stemming from Latin America, are also sustainable in Europe and for the Mar Menor case. Continue reading >>
0
20 Dezember 2022
The Road to Repression
On 2 December 2022, the UN Special Rapporteur Freedom of Association sent a remarkable Tweet. “Australia – ”, the Special Rapporteur tweeted, “I am alarmed at #NSW court’s prison term against #ClimateProtester Deanna Coco and refusal to grant bail until a March 2023 appeal hearing. Peaceful protesters should never be criminalised or imprisoned.” The Special Rapporteur was referring to the arrest of Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco to 15 months in prison with a non-parole period of eight months for blocking one of five lanes of traffic on Sydney Harbour Bridge during a climate change protest for 28 minutes. Continue reading >>
0
09 Juni 2021
Standing for Piglets
In a non-acceptance order of 14 May 2021, the German Federal Constitutional Court refused to accept a constitutional complaint submitted by the German Branch of the animal rights organization PETA for adjudication. The Constitutional Court missed an opportunity to open the constitution to non-anthropocentric approaches. A constitutional amendment might be necessary to explicitly terminate the long-standing mediatization of the natural environment with its negative consequences for the effectiveness of environmental law and protection. Continue reading >>
0
28 Mai 2021
The Amazon Rainforest under Attack
On 13 May, the Brazilian lower house approved a controversial Bill on Environmental Licensing. The Bill has yet to receive the Senate’s final approval, but it has already attracted much criticism. The actual target of the Bill is thinly veiled: The Amazon region, where it could lead to increasing deforestation. The Bill is just another step in the regressive, anti-environment agenda implemented by the current Brazilian government. Continue reading >>14 Februar 2018