Constitutional Promises and Environmental Protection

Constitutions detailing the legal obligations of a nation to its peoples have been around for centuries, since England’s Magna Carta. As our conceptions of governance evolved, constitutions became the locus for codifying rights considered worthy of protection from the state or by the state. In the past sixty years, constitutions around the world have begun recognizing people’s rights to a healthy environment. Nearly half a century after the widespread adoption of these constitutional clauses, in a world plagued by issues of cooperation over sustainable development and climate change, it begs the question of how effective these rights have been. This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the relationship between the commitments made by advanced economies and their ultimate outcomes.