Rights of Nature in Ecuador

Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS) Seminar Series.

In 2008, Ecuador emerged at the forefront of the movement to recognize Nature as a subject of law, becoming the first, and to date the only, country to recognize and protect the rights of Nature at the Constitutional level. At the time of writing, several recent judgements of the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court, the highest body of constitutional interpretation, have significantly developed the content of the rights of Nature provisions recognized within the Constitutional text. However, these cases have not received extensive consideration by English-speaking academia. Pursuant to this, the primary purpose of this talk is to offer a critical evaluation of the main judgements that have developed the content of the rights of nature in Ecuador, focusing in particular on the judgements concerning the violation of the rights of Nature of forests, mangroves, rivers, and wild animals.

Andrés Martínez Moscoso is Associate Professor in Law, Director of the Institute of Legal Research of the College of Jurisprudence and Executive Secretary of ICON•S, International Society of Public Law. His main lines of research are Water Law; Environmental law; and Public Management. He is national and international consultant on issues related to water management and environmental law and participated to international research projects with the PNUD, Cornell University and European universities (such as the Antwerp University and the KULeuven) on topics of circular economy, waters, ecosystem of urban life and food supply chain. He is also a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law (CMDA) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.