The enforcement of new environmental rights through the courts: problems and possible solutions

Under the pressure of social activism and scientists’ warnings, environmental law is going through a slow but very innovative process of revision of its foundation. Changes are driven happening both by Acts of Parliament and by courts’ rulings, and they involve the redefinition of some core legal concepts such as the legal personhood of Nature, and the recognition of new climate rights. In order to make these innovations enforceable, courts and lawyers have to solve some systemic problems and to accommodate old concepts with new aims and functions: which scope should be recognized to the legal subjectivity of natural elements or to the human right to a liveable climate? Which types of obligations do these rights imply? To whom? Which type of actions can be brought to court in order to implement these rights? In this chapter, the author will analyze some of the problems courts have encountered when facing these cases and their answers and will try to draw some proposals to reinforce this process of legal renovation