Magna Carta: Our
Legal Right to a
Healthy Environment
“It is a riddle, wrapped in a
mystery, inside an enigma”
“typically used to describe
something that is
immensely puzzling to
figure out or extraordinarily
complex to fully
understand, often relying
on hyperbole and,
occasionally, sarcasm”
Professor Duncan French
University of Lincoln
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historical, ahistorical & evolutionary
arguments
Magna Carta is not an environmental
document, nevertheless…
Clause 5: “For so long as a guardian has
guardianship of such land, he shall maintain
the houses, parks, fish preserves, ponds, mills
and everything else pertaining to it…”
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Magna Carta as the beginnings of something…
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Lord Woolf: “it was the first of a series of
instruments that now are recognised as having a
special constitutional status”
Magna Carta as symbolic of our values
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but what these values are is a matter of context for
each generation to decide
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Magna Carta as due process
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Clause 40: “To no one shall we sell, delay or deny
right or justice”
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Aarhus Convention “rights” of participation, access
to information & justice
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current cuts in legal aid and other obstacles to
(environmental) justice
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Magna Carta as good government
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“better ordering of our Kingdom”
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public administration as a necessary activity of
government
Magna Carta as representing human rights
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Environmental protection as a human rights issue
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Benjamin Franklin (1722): “Without freedom of thought
there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing
as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the
right of every man…”
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“greening” traditional rights
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Lopez Ostra (1994)
Ogoniland (2001): “pollution and environmental
degradation to a level humanly unacceptable”
human right to a satisfactory environment
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over ½ of world’s constitutions make reference to
environmental protection
section 24 of South African Constitution:
“Everyone has the right a. to an environment that is not harmful to their
health or well-being; and b. to have the environment protected, for the benefit
of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other
measures that
i. prevent pollution and ecological degradation;
ii. promote conservation; and
iii. secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural
resources while promoting justifiable economic and social
development”.
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article 71 of Ecuador’s Constitution:
“Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to
integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of
its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. All persons,
communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce
the rights of nature.”
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Magna Carta & 1217 Charter of the Forest
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“The Charter of the Forest formally recognised the Vernacular
Law of the English commoners, that is their traditional rights of
access to, and use of, royal lands and forests. The rights were
essentially rights of subsistence, because the commoners
depended on the forests for food, fuel, and economic security
through their traditional rights of pannage (pasture for their
pigs), estover (collecting firewood), agistment (grazing), and
turbary (cutting of turf for fuel), among other practices” (Burns
Weston et al, 2013)
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Clause 60: “All these customs and liberties that
we have granted shall be observed in our
kingdom in so far as concerns our own
relations with our subjects. Let all men of our
kingdom, whether clergy or laymen, observe
them similarly in their relations with their own
men”
Beyond the State, where does power lie in
environmental matters?