The environmental rights entrenched in the constitutions: a critique

Abstract

Although environmental law is a relatively a new field of scholarship in South Africa, it is growing rapidly. The right to access to social security including environmental rights is found in the South African Bill of Rights, is being amplified by legislative and constitutional reforms, and developing case law in the courts. There is therefore a clear need to increase the understanding f the discipline through systematic research and teaching at various levels1. The notion of including an “environmental right” in a domestic constitution is not novel in Africa. Most African countries have incorporated a constitutional provision that ensures the right to a healthy environment. Most of the problems that exists with environmental rights under the international and regional systems are absent under the domestic South African system. The way in which environmental rights have been formulated in international instruments, section 24 of the South African Constitution has been framed as an individual right and not as a collective one. Environmental degration often affects groups of people and it could consequently argued that the right should protect groups and not just individuals2.

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