Antropocene e nuovi costituzionalismi ambientali: profili assiologico-giuridici

Anthropocene and new environmental constitutionalisms: axiological-legal profiles

Abstract

The influences of anthropogenic activities have become so invasive that they have led the scientific community to discuss the identification of a new geological era: the Anthropocene. The consequences of the encroachment of such activities can be seen in the degradation of human economies, nature, and socio-legal tissues. The conflict between neo-liberal models and new constitutionalisms carves out legal-economic models in which a relevant role of the environment emerges in the various formants of the production of law. With the strengthening of extractive capitalism, made possible by the supreme valorisation of property and the freedom of private economic initiative at the basis of the neo-liberal model, the result has been, on the one hand, the continuous strengthening of 'fossil law' and, on the other, a constant weakening of the effective protection of the environment, nature and climate. This paper proposes to discuss, by investigating the context of the so-called «metabolic rift» between man and nature, the interdisciplinary methodological perspectives of comparative public law and the new environmental 'constitutionalisms' in comparative theory, which have particularly encouraged the constitutionalisation of the environment and nature in various 'sections' of the constitutional Charters through radical democratic involvements and state regulatory reforms. Thus, international environmental law, which has allowed for an important evolution of environmental law principles, is also strengthened through bottom-up and 'constituent' processes. The axiological impact of some innovative ecological constitutional provisions accompanies significant socio-legal changes in this central challenge of our century.