Introduction On Nature and Property
Rodrigo Míguez Núñez, UPO
2023
The essays presented in this section start with an essential premise: the ideas we employ to characterize our interactions with the outside world are not neutral. Since ‘nature’ and ‘property’ are abstract concepts and mental constructions, every attempt at individualization should consider historical and geographical factors. Through a combination of empirical, historical, and theoretical approaches, the authors of this special issue examine the differing ideas of how ‘nature’ informs property rights, and the impact that legal, economic, or political choices have on the ethics of nature. Bringing together a diverse spectrum of disciplinary, geographic, and ideological perspectives, this special issue seeks to provide a sophisticated, interdisciplinary analysis of the rules that govern people’s access to and control over land and its natural resources to confront governance today in addressing unprecedented global crises related to climate change.
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Climate Litigation in Argentina: A Critical and Prospective Analysis
Gastón Medici-Colombo, María Valeria Berros
2023
This article analyses the climate litigation scenario in Argentina. Based on the Sabin Center Database, we conducted an in-depth study of all the proceeding documents of the identified cases. We found that, in Argentina, a significant number of climate cases exists compared to other jurisdictions in the region and in the Global South as a whole. These cases show civil society actors suing public and corporate actors due to the deployment of ‘climate-disruptive’ projects or the failed protection of climate-relevant ecosystems. Plaintiffs use a variety of judicial avenues and grounds from different regulatory levels. That said, the case law study leads us to conclude that climate litigation is still incipient in Argentina. Climate change is a very novel legal issue for Argentinean litigants and courts, with lawsuits only developing actual climate argumentation very recently and with not even one judgment, let alone a landmark decision, addressing climate concerns. That is a notable difference from other jurisdictions in the region. Furthermore, we anticipate that climate litigation will continue to grow in Argentina, given weak political opportunities for climate action and stronger legal opportunities provided by broad judicial avenues, a multiplicity of grounds that can be used in climate arguments, and innovative environmental legal approaches developed by the Supreme Court.
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Inappropriate Nature Natural Resources as Commons
Irene Ortiz Gala, Carmen Madorrán Ayerra
2023
This paper seeks to examine from a philosophical perspective the relationship be-tween nature and property (whether public, private or communal). The way ourfossil-based societies inhabit the world clashes with the biophysical limits of theplanet, which has led to the current socioecological crisis. Against this background,it is essential to rethink some classic problems also in the field of humanities. First,we outline the notion of nature as biosphere. Second, we identify some milestonesin the discussion on common goods in the Western tradition. Finally, we reviewdifferent approaches to the ownership of natural resources or goods (understoodas the basis for human life) and highlight the importance of treating them ascommons—especially in the context of the Anthropocene.
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An Ecocentric Perspective on Climate Litigation: Lessons from Latin America
Fernanda de Salles Cavedon-Capdeville, María Valeria Berros, Humberto Filpi, Paola Villavicencio-Calzadilla
2023
Based on the latest developments in ecological law in Latin America, including the recognition of the rights of nature, this article examines emerging climate-related cases that, challenging Western anthropocentric legal paradigms, address the climate crisis from an ecocentric perspective to protect both human and nature rights. Through novel arguments based on ecological law counter-narratives and a rights of nature perspective, these cases are giving way to the emergence of a new typology of climate litigation in which the intrinsic value and interests of all life forms and the legal status of nature are recognized. First, this article analyses the experience and current trends in the emerging field of ecological law in the region, including ecological and intergenerational dimensions of human rights and the legal and jurisprudential recognition of the rights of nature. Second, it reviews and compares some of the most relevant climate-related cases as well as recent, less known—some still pending—claims that incorporate an ecocentric approach, combining the protection of the rights of present and future generations and the rights of nature or exploring other arguments in the field of ecological law. These cases have the potential to contribute to the development of climate litigation with an ecocentric profile. Attention is given to the main arguments, characteristics, strengths, and shortcomings of these cases, as well as to potential barriers to the development of an ecocentric angle to climate litigation and the implementation of judicial decisions.
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Los dos caminos del reconocimiento de los derechos de la naturaleza en América Latina
Valeria María Berros, María Carman
2022
Las experiencias constitucionales, legales y jurisprudenciales de los últimos años perfilan dos caminos sobre el reconocimiento de derechos de la naturaleza en América Latina. En este trabajo reponemos las características centrales de este proceso, que ya lleva más de una década. En primer lugar, referimos al camino iniciado por la Constitución de Ecuador y la legislación de Bolivia, que reconocen los derechos de la naturaleza; a lo que siguieron proyectos de ley nacionales, provinciales y locales en diferentes países de la región. En segundo término, abordamos algunas causas judiciales que reconocen derechos a determinados ecosistemas mediante argumentos que reinterpretan el derecho de manera ecocéntrica. Nuestro supuesto es que este proceso de ampliación de derechos involucra una democratización y pluralización ontológica de la justicia ambiental, en tanto retoma saberes y prácticas que no tenían presencia en ese ámbito; instituye nuevas figuras, como los guardianes de ríos; e interrumpe la unidireccionalidad Norte-Sur en la producción de conocimiento y herramientas jurídicas, incorporando mundos donde la agencia no es exclusivamente humana.
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Desafíos poliéticos de las transiciones energética
A. Almazán Gómez, J. Riechmann en Arbor. Ciencia, pensamiento, cultura, vol. 199
2023
Son vastas y múltiples las dimensiones éticas del uso de la energía (dimensiones ético-políticas, poliéticas, para quienes pensamos que hay continuidad entre ética y política). Tras esbozar un mapa de este campo de problemas, nos centramos en las dificultades que afrontan las transiciones energéticas y argumentamos que solo encarando una profunda transformación de las formas de producción y los modos de vida se podrían evitar, quizá, los escenarios peores. Las técnicas humildes deberían desplegarse en marcos de ecofeminismo de subsistencia o ecosocialismo descalzo.
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André Gorz and contemporary Frankfurt School Critical Theory: Alienation, eco-socialism and post-productivism
Neal Harris, Javier Zamora Garcia
2023
We argue that Gorz’s work offers a nuanced engagement with alienation that is instructive for contemporary social theory. In keeping with Gorz’s broader politics, we contend that the utility of his framing of alienation derives from his insistence that progressive critique must challenge the ideal of productivism. We start the paper by presenting a sympathetic reconstruction of Gorz’s understanding of alienation. Next, we explicitly detail the strengths his approach carries for furthering sociological research today. We then reinforce this point by arguing that Gorz’s work offers particularly valuable theoretical resources for contemporary Frankfurt School Critical Theory, in which the study of alienation has been somehow hampered by the ascent of ‘recognition theory’. While not sharing all the methodological commitments of first-generation Critical Theorists, Gorz was well versed in Frankfurt School scholarship and is therefore an apposite interlocutor to engage ‘third-generation’ Critical Theory. Gorz’s insights are thus shown to be important for furthering contemporary social theory, and in particular, for helping to combat the unsustainable productivism of neoliberal capitalism.
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