Structural Environmental Constitutionalism

Environmental constitutionalism is of increasing importance as both national and subnational governments seek to facilitate environmental protection through constitutional provisions. Most environmental constitutionalism scholarship focuses on textual constitutional provisions protecting fundamental substantive or procedural citizen rights to a quality environment — what might be termed “fundamental environmental constitutionalism.” Yet another type of environmental constitutionalism is of equal or perhaps even more importance — that is, “structural environmental constitutionalism.” This form of environmental constitutionalism regards the allocation of environmental regulatory authority among levels of government, a particularly salient issue in federal systems of government. This article describes the key attributes of structural environmental constitutionalism, how it manifests, and its implications for constitutional forms of environmental protection across the globe