Description
Book SynopsisOver the past 40 years, countries throughout the world have similarly adopted human rights related to environmental governance and protection in national constitutions. Interestingly, these countries vary widely in terms of geography, politics, history, resources, and wealth. This raises the question: why do some countries have constitutional environmental rights while others do not? Bringing together theory from law, political science, and sociology, a global statistical analysis, and a comparative study of constitutional design in South Asia, Gellers presents a comprehensive response to this important question. Moving beyond normative debates and anecdotal developments in case law, as well as efforts to describe and categorize such rights around the world, this book provides a systematic analysis of the expansion of environmental rights using social science methods and theory. The resulting theoretical framework and empirical evidence offer new insights into how domestic and inter
Trade Review
In his superbly-written new book, Professor Josh Gellers offers us an exciting, radically different and ground-breaking transdisciplinary perspective on the emergence of constitutional environmental rights through an innovative application of social science methods and empirical inquiries. As a leading political scientist and legal scholar, Professor Gellers is perfectly placed to pry open restrictive methodological approaches, providing as he does, fresh insights for lawyers to appreciate why countries actually adopt constitutional environmental rights.
Professor Louis J. Kotzé
Research Professor, North-West University, South Africa
In this exciting comparative environmental travelogue, Gellers maintains with wealth of impressive empirical evidence that international environmental norms make and mould ‘state identities’ and shape the design of national constitutions. All those especially interested in green governance and Anthropocene justice should find this rich work very rewarding.
Upendra Baxi
Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Warwick and Delhi
The author’s novel interdisciplinary analytical device called "a world cultural framework of constitutional environmental rights" incorporating theories from international relations, sociology and law, seeks to improve our understanding of the emergence of environmental rights. He does so by skillfully drawing upon quantitative and qualitative analyses involving Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Sumudu Atapattu
Director of Research Centers at University of Wisconsin Law School
In his superbly-written new book, Professor Josh Gellers offers us an exciting, radically different and ground-breaking transdisciplinary perspective on the emergence of constitutional environmental rights through an innovative application of social science methods and empirical inquiries. As a leading political scientist and legal scholar, Professor Gellers is perfectly placed to pry open restrictive methodological approaches, providing as he does, fresh insights for lawyers to appreciate why countries actually adopt constitutional environmental rights.
Professor Louis J. Kotzé
Research Professor, North-West University, South Africa
In this exciting comparative environmental travelogue, Gellers maintains with wealth of impressive empirical evidence that international environmental norms make and mould ‘state identities’ and shape the design of national constitutions. All those especially interested in green governance and Anthropocene justice should find this rich work very rewarding.
Upendra Baxi
Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Warwick and Delhi
The author’s novel interdisciplinary analytical device called "a world cultural framework of constitutional environmental rights" incorporating theories from international relations, sociology and law, seeks to improve our understanding of the emergence of environmental rights. He does so by skillfully drawing upon quantitative and qualitative analyses involving Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Sumudu Atapattu
Director of Research Centers at University of Wisconsin Law School
Overall, this book is a significant contribution to the growing literature on constitutional environmental rights. Gellers’ empirical, mixed-methods approach sets the bar high for other scholars seeking to tackle the many remaining questions in this field.
David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment
Table of ContentsTable of Contents
List of figures and tables
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1 Constitutions, human rights, and the environment
2 National constitutions in world society
3 The global expansion of environmental rights
4 The experiences of Nepal and Sri Lanka
5 Constitutions for a greener future?
Appendix: Technical discussion of qualitative research methodology
Index
