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• On the Phenomenon of Rights of Nature: Secular and Ecclesiastical Perspectives

  43-64

  Ágnes Tahyné Kovács

  Views:

  274

  In humanity's search for solutions, efforts to curb environmental problems and reverse harmful processes are evident. Throughout history, depending on the prevailing worldview, legal cultures have reflected humanity's relationship with nature. The study presents certain manifestations of a relatively new regulatory concept – the phenomenon of the rights of nature – according to its appearance at different regulatory levels. After summarizing its common elements, it compares this with the perspective present in the Catholic Church's social teachings concerning the relationship between humans and nature.

• The Human Rights Approach to Climate Change and the Anthropocentrism of Human Rights

  26-42

  Barbara Jakkel

  Views:

  221

  We live in the ’Anthropocene’, whereby human destructive activity is having such a major impact on Planet Earth that it has become the main culprit in the global ecological crisis involving climate change, biodiversity loss and overall pollution. The scientific conception of the Anthropocene makes it inevitable that societies will reconsider the myriad economic and legal institutions used to regulate the relationship between humans and the environment. Since, a critic from the environmental ethics perspective states that the ecological crisis has been brought about by an anthropocentric view that emphasizes the exclusivity of human interests, subordinating non-human beings to these human interests. Such eco- or biocentric approaches, giving rights to nature or constitutionalizing biodiversity, seem rather exotic to a European lawyer, as in climate policy fights of this region we make efforts to increase the role of human rights. In this paper, I would like to point out that legal solutions that go beyond an anthropocentric perspective should not be understood as a kind of exoticism, but as a fundamental challenge to human rights-based climate protection that seeks to extend the language of rights beyond humans and calls for a non-human-centred protection of the environment. I will argue that, while this challenge must be taken seriously, there are good reasons to continue to use the language of human rights to express our climate change-related demands.