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Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Journal

2017

United States Constitution; Commerce Clause; Environmental protection; Legislation; Environment; President of the United States of America; Indian Constitution; Indian Supreme Court; Federal Environmental Protection; India; United States of America; Equal Protection Clause; Fourteeth Amendment; Civil Rights Act; Fundamental constitutional rights; U.S. Supreme Court; Environmental justice; Government Accountability Office (GAO); Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Hazardous waste; Hurricane Katrinal; Racism; EPA regulation; Executive Order on Environmental Justice

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Full-Text Articles in Law

The “Right” Right To Environmental Protection: What We Can Discern From The American And Indian Constitutional Experience, Deepa Badrinarayana Dec 2017

The “Right” Right To Environmental Protection: What We Can Discern From The American And Indian Constitutional Experience, Deepa Badrinarayana

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Should there be a constitutional right to environmental protection? Arguments for and against are aplenty, but there is no consensus on this issue. Drawing on the experience within the U.S. and Indian Constitutions, this article posits that the right to environmental protection has normative and practical significance, because a constitutional right attaches to an individual and, hence, can protect an individual from environmental harms, whereas environmental laws, that focus primarily on reducing adverse environmental impact on a general population, may not. It further argues that, to be effective, three constitutionally-embedded rights that are central to preserving the right to environmental …