El derecho a la naturaleza fundamentos o
Brittany ArcosThe rights of the nature: foundations The Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008, for the first time in a constitution in the world, recognizes that the nature has rights. The great majority of the jurist community rejects this legal recognition and considers it a meaningless provision. The essay seeks to understand the traditional arguments for denying rights to nature-nature has no dignity, cannot exercise individual rights , has no capacity to obligate itself and nature cannot be comparable with human beings. However, if we think, for instance, about companies regulations, these arguments become irrelevant: companies have legal status and rights. Law is a social convention and may change. At some point in history, Law did not recognize rights to African American people, women or to indigenous people. Rights and State protection can be extended to animals or nature, if in a democracy is so decided. But, being the recognition of the nature´s rights a claim of indigenous peoples, lawyers must learn from the wisdom and the philosophy of indigenous. The real foundations of nature´s rights are not in the traditional jurisprudence but in ancient knowledge. These "new" rights offer new insights for understanding the relationship of humans with nature and human beings with themselves, that is "the well being". Humanity and living beings need a better world. The recognition of the rights of the nature can help to change a system based on competition, exploitation, and the destruction of the world.
