Right to a Healthy Environment in and Beyond the Anthropocene

Edited by Hendrik Schoukens, Professor, Environmental Law, Centre for Environmental and Energy Law, University of Ghent and Lawyer at the Brussels Bar and Farah Bouquelle, Assistant, Environmental Law, Centre for Environmental and Energy Law, University of Ghent, Belgium

‘This new book makes a timely, much needed and valuable contribution to clarifying the nature and content of the right to a healthy environment. Leading lawyers and judges in Europe illuminate and elucidate the many facets of the right and the correlative duties. Their mapping of the distinctive features of the right will be invaluable for those who seek guidance in this under-explored territory of the law.’

• Contents:Introduction: the right to a healthy environment revisited asa necessary leverage point in times of climate crisis in Europeand beyond? 1Hendrik Schoukens and Farah BouquellePART I REPOSITIONING THE RIGHT TOA HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT INA CHANGING INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT:OVERARCHING CONCEPTUAL AND LEGALQUESTIONS1 A half-century journey of human rights and theenvironment in the international arena: from separation tointegration 34Meng Zhang2 Greening the European Convention on Human Rights:how to determine the substance of environmental human rights? 53Laurens Lavrysen3 Strengthening the link between human health and biodiversity 72An Cliquet and Frank MaesPART II THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTFRAMED WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF EUCLIMATE CHANGE, AIR QUALITY ANDWATER LAW: SHAKING UP THE HABITUAL?4 The Shell case and the human rights argument in climatelitigation: building the narrative? 94Carole M. Billiet5 Healthy air as an obligation of result in the wholeEuropean Union: definitely a matter of time 116Delphine Misonne6 The right to water and the right to a healthy environment:does the Water Framework Directive map out the way ahead? 136Peter De Smedt and Helena F.M.W. Van RijswickPART III NATURE AND ANIMAL WELFARE INEUROPE REVISITED: REINTERPRETINGTHE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTBEYOND THE ANTHROPOCENTRIC FRAMEWORK7 Right to a healthy environment: linking ecocentrism withanthropocentrism 166Kari Kuusiniemi8 Rights of nature in the European Union: a rights-basedapproach as an inevitable outcome of increasedenvironmental protection in the Anthropocene? 184Hendrik Schoukens9 Some explorations about extending the right to a healthyenvironment to future generations and animals 227Geert Van Hoorick and Elien VerniersPART IV CASE STUDIES FROM EUROPE ANDBEYOND: CROSS-POLLINATION OR LIVINGAPART TOGETHER?10 The right to a healthy environment and climate change:a necessary match? 247Robert Carnwath11 China and the right to a healthy environment in the lastdecade: practices from an unexpected frontrunner 259Jianwei Zhang12 Green constitutionalism in Belgium: the right to a healthyenvironment as a principle of non-regression 285Jan TheunisPART V CHALLENGES TO ENFORCE THE RIGHT TOA HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT: BRIDGINGTHE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE13 Right to a healthy environment and the remediation ofecological damage: seeking effective remedies? 304Ann Carette14 The role of national courts: does the right to a healthyenvironment make a difference to the environment?Lessons learnt from national court rulings 322Fruzsina Bögös15 Civil disobedience for a healthy environment 339Pierre Lefranc