Jurisprudential basis of the right to clean and healthy environment

Title

Jurisprudential basis of the right to clean and healthy environment

Creator

Dev S.I.

Description

Examining the basis of the right to a clean and healthy environment helps in an increased understanding of the nature of the right which in turn will further the job of devising effective strategies and policies to meet the interests of the environment and make the right a reality. This paper examines four strategies: Firstly protect environment rights by declaring it to be a right. This would protect it from mutilation at the hands of political processes, and thus would be a safer option, but its dimensions have not yet been crystallised. Secondly, it can be protected by making it part and parcel of human rights. Thirdly, the Interest Theory suggests that the interest of the environment must be protected for its own sake by creating such an interest. Fourthly, the notion of Intergenerational Responsibility which establishes that the present generation has an obligation/duty to preserve and protect the environment for a correlative similar right which the future generation enjoys. The article also examines the conflict between environment protection and developmental needs of humanity. Indian courts have referred to traditional Indian philosophy of 'Dharma' and have tried to adopt a balancing approach by integrating environment values with developmental values. Any theory that does not resolve the above conflict would clearly be insufficient. 2013 Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (DVK, Bangalore).

Source

Journal of Dharma, Vol-39, No. 2, pp. 139-150.

Date

2014-01-01

Publisher

Dharmaram College, Centre for the Study of World Religions

Subject

Environment rights; Jurisprudential basis; Rights/duty based approach

Coverage

Dev S.I., School of Law, Christ University, Bengaluru, India

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISSN: 2537222

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84942066774&partnerID=40&md5=4ba2e3faff2b47c0d1546c9018a94dac