The Role of the United Nations in the Development of Environmental Constitutionalism: An Appraisal

Environmental constitutionalism (EC) is a recent phenomenon that brings the trinity of environmental rights, i.e., the substantive environmental rights (SER), the procedural environmental rights (PER) and the rights of environment (RoE), within the national and sub-national constitutional texts. The United Nations (UN) has significantly developed the concept of the EC through the formulation of the international environmental laws. The Stockholm Declaration 1972 has been a seminal contribution of the UN in the development of the EC. The Rio Declaration 1992 has remarkably strengthened the conception of the EC, notably recognizing RoE through developing the public trust doctrine and polluter pays principle. The Johannesburg Declaration 2002 and the Rio+20 Declaration 2012 have formally recognized the PER but remained silent on the SER and the RoE. The Stockholm+50 meet 2022 has recognized the SER and the PER but remained silent on the RoE. However, the UN has potentially propelled three-quarters of the nations across the world to incorporate the trinity rights of the EC within the texts of their national and sub-national constitutions in different forms. This research paper investigates the conceptual outlines of the EC and role of the UN in the development of components of the EC and translation of the EC in a few selected democracies, including India.