Ecological Constitutionalism and Ecosystem Approach

"Ecological Constitutionalism and Ecosystem Approach: New Fuzzy Perspectives for the Methodology of Comparative Public Law in a Plural and Intersectional Key" is a new LUMEN publication by Amilcare D'Andrea, member of the research unit at the University of Bologna.

The publication is included in the latest issue of the Revista General de Derecho Público Comparado 36 (2024), pp. 266-316, which, among other articles of interest, also features a contribution by Roberto Louvin, a member of the research unit at the University of Trieste, who curated the monographic section of this issue, titled "Mountains, Environment, and Climate in a Special World."

The LUMEN publication by D'Andrea analyzes the methodological evolution of comparative public law through the integration of ecological constitutionalism and the ecosystemic approach to law. By rethinking the relationship between unity and multiplicity in legal systems, it promotes an equitable dialogue between legal cultures, overcoming identity-based thinking in a plural and intersectional perspective. Law is thus redefined as a cultural phenomenon and a tool for building a new ecological and counter-hegemonic paradigm, capable of addressing the challenges of globalization and the current socio-environmental crisis.

Abstract: The following methodological analysis engages contemporary theories of comparative public law to build a fruitful dialogue among legal systems in which environment and nature can be adequately considered in their social, legal, and economic dimensions. Particular attention will be given to the relations between different legal experiences, drawing upon references and evolutionary proposals associated with Menskian theories and fuzzy logic within legal pluralism. The protection of the environment and nature, alongside neo-liberalism, in the formation of law, require, today, the construction of a new paradigm: an ecological law centred on constitutionalism, on the normative force of principles and on the power of democratic confrontation in a counter-hegemonic perspective. This approach enables a departure from Eurocentrism, fostering fair dialogue among peoples and cultures, across diverse legal traditions, to collectively address the adverse impacts of globalization and the challenge of ecological catastrophe. The central focus of fuzzy speculation in postmodern legal theory sets up an idea of legal order by rethinking the unity/multiplicity relationship, contrasting with the prevailing thought of the modern era, marked by an identity-type logic. Fundamental importance is placed on the fuzzy-identity-collective logic, interconnected with the recognition of economic, legal, and social privileges that underpin the social and jurisdictional movements of intersectional struggles, to progressively mitigate relations of domination and exploitation while recognizing identities in the collectivity. In this context, the systems thinking also redesigns prototypes and models of legal systems, considering not only the gnoseological speculations on norms within legal orders, but law as a cultural phenomenon. Consequently, the potential breadth of constitutionalism is truly remarkable when disentangled from neoliberal conceptions, encompassing a wide array of issues affecting the human condition and heralding new economic and legal paradigms that can be systematically sustainable. The socio-environmental crisis is a defining feature of our time, a threat to the quality and dignity of life, both human and non-human, and requires an ecosystem approach to law from a constitutionalist and collectivist perspective.