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		Event Series:	

	
		
			‘What Is a Constitution? Reading Toward a Problem’		
	


	

Reading Seminar on ‘Environmental Constitutionalism’
		


	

	

		
			September 10, 2025		

					
				 @ 			
			
				3:00 pm			
		
									
					 – 				
			
							
					4:00 pm				
			
						







Join us in Taylor A08 for a reading seminar led by Dr Erin Ferguson (Law) – open to staff and PhD students in all disciplines. 





The readings are: 





    

  1. Sam Bookman, ‘Demystifying Environmental Constitutionalism’(2024)– Sections I and II ONLY
    2. 




  2. David R Boyd, The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution that Could Save the World (ECW Press 2017) – Chapter 10, Pachamama and Ecuador’s Pioneering Constitution ONLY
    3. 






The following questions can be used to guide reading and to help get us started in our discussion:





    

  1. What is environmental constitutionalism? 
    2. 




  2. What are the underlying justifications for elevating environmental protection to ‘constitutional status’?
    3. 




  3. What does environmental constitutionalism mean in the UK, given the orthodox position that there is no clear distinction between ‘constitutional’ and ‘ordinary’ laws and where entrenchment is limited by the doctrine that the UK Parliament cannot bind its successors? Is environmental constitutional even ‘a thing’ in the UK?
    4. 




  4. Does the concept of environmental constitutionalism align with your understanding of what a constitution is for?
    5. 




  5. Many countries throughout the world now include environmental rights provisions within their national constitutions. Ecuador has gone even further and enshrined the rights of nature in its constitution (see Boyd). But is this really a ‘game changer’ as Boyd calls it, or is this merely performative?
    6. 




  6. To what extent does or can environmental constitutionalism actually support environmental protection? 
    7. 






This list is not intended as prescriptive, but can help get us started. The goal is to spark a discussion on the nature and aims of environmental constitutionalism, which in turn can challenge us to consider what constitutions are for generally. Because we will only read excerpts from the authors’ work, the emphasis will not really be on critiquing their arguments, but rather discussing the idea of environmental constitutionalism broadly.





		







	
		
	





	

		

			
		

	





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