Rights of Nature and the right to a healthy environment: Jurisprudence of the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court

Abstract

In this essay I analyse some relationships among the rights of nature and the human right to a healthy environment. I show these relationships describing several rulings of the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court, and specially the Los Cedros judgement, which is a ruling on mining concessions granted within a cloud forest located in a highly biodiverse area. Judges must impartially examine the arguments and evidence presented by the parties involved. However, to issue a ruling, they must ultimately adopt a position based on their own interpretation of the law and understanding of the facts. The author of this essay served as the rapporteur judge for the Los Cedros ruling when I was a member of Ecuador’s Constitutional Court. During this judicial process and afterward, I have reflected on the relationship between the rights of nature and the right to a healthy environment. While drafting the ruling and later, after leaving the Court, analysing it as an academic—considering its precedents, context, and consequences—I have developed several scholarly arguments that are expressed in this essay