Are we witnessing an ecocentric turn of international environmental law?

In order to be able to analyze whether we are currently witnessing an ecocentric turn of international environmental
law (IEL) we must first understand the two concepts separately. International environmental law is a branch of
public international law that is “concerned with the attempt to control pollution and the depletion of natural
resources within a framework of sustainable development”1 - it is concerned with topics such as: “ population,
biodiversity, climate change, ozone depletion, toxic and hazardous substances, air, land, sea and transboundary water
pollution, conservation of marine resources, desertification, and nuclear damage”. Whereas, ecocentrism refers to a
term that denotes “a nature-created, as opposed to human-centred, system of values”2. In order to be able to analyze
the topic we must look at how IEL is based currently and then evaluate whether there is evidence to indicate a shift
in the future.

When we are looking at IEL, there are two main declarations to consider - firstly, the Declaration of the United
Nations Conference on the Human Environment (the 1972 Stockholm declaration) - which represents the first legal
attempt of considering the global human impact of the environment (mainly consisting of policy goals). The other
important declaration refers to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) - consisting of 27
principles with the purpose of sustainable development all across the globe. Originally, based on these main
declarations we can state that the view on IEL was related to the idea of protecting the environment not for the good
of the environment but rather because it is important for humans to protect the environment (important for their
health, survival, recreation etc.) - therefore we can state that the foundation of IEL was definitely not built with an
econcentric view in mind. However, it can be argued that ecocentrism is not an entirely new concept to IEL as over
the past decades there have been several ecocentric movements within the legal framework - take as an example the
“2017 Whanganui Agreement in New Zealand” - in which the Whanganui river was given a legal personality on the
basis of not only an ancestral relationship with the river but also on the idea that the river offered essential food
source and had created a deep spiritual connection - seeing the river as a holistic system. We can view this as a stride
for the ecocentric viewpoint as this bill provides a basis that shows not only a disruption in the patterns of
oppression shown by humans in relation to nature but also supports the participation of indigenous communities and
the fact that this movement is guided by rights and such actions can no longer be solely be dictated by human
property interests upon a natural object.

Furthermore, I believe that another relevant example in our analysis is that of countries such as Ecuador that have
begun including, since 2008, the rights of nature into their constitutional revision - managing to emphasize on “the
centrality of nature in legal reasoning”. This includes challenging certain laws that have been created with the
function of protecting the environment solely for human benefit - they managed to argue against these laws on the
basis of two main principles - firstly, the fact that humans are part of the environment and secondly, that the
existence of nature, independently from humans, matters. Therefore proving that in some ways we can observe a
shift towards an ecocentric approach. However, even when strides are being made in different parts of the world,
nature is overall neglected in other fields of international law - considering that international law as a whole is
created on the basis of an anthropocentric view (viewing humans as the central/most important element of existence)
- leading to the creation of patterns of discrimination and opression towards the environment that are imbedded in
the foundations of the legal system. It can be argued that in this sense a need for an ecocentric approach is highly
relevant so as to disrupt the “patterns of oppression and of the dichotomy human/nature or culture/nature, and the
emphasis placed on the intersections of grounds of oppression”3.

1
Gardner, R. (2017). Library Guides: Public International Law: International Environmental Law. [online] unimelb.libguides.com. Available at:
https://unimelb.libguides.com/internationallaw/environmental.
2
Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Ecocentrism. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocentrism.
3
Kings AE. Intersectionality and the changing face of ecofeminism. Ethics Environ. 2017;22:63–87. Doi: 10.2979/ethicsenviro.22.1.04
Furthermore, it is essential to understand the effect that the Covid-19 pandemic has had upon IEL and the concept of
ecocentrism - the pandemic has affected human rights and the international law legal system as a whole and
represents a serious environmental issue - given the anthropocentric approach of IL the whole system faced great
challenges. However, it can be argued that an ecocentric approach that puts the environment in the center (defining
the environment as “us” - including humans, non-human beings and all natural objects) would encourage the whole
system to be able to react to unprecedented situations such as the pandemic more effectively. Therefore, given the
analysis thus far we can state with certainty that while there are certain strides being made towards ecocentrism the
legal system is far away from operating with such a view in mind, however for the purpose of the analysis I believe
it to be useful to analyze how an ecocentric IEL system could work and what it would entail.

We can analyze the possible creation of an ecocentric IEL system by giving one main example - this refers to
“environmental global health” - creating a system of actors (including non-human animals and natural objects, legal
instruments, policies and measures) that aim to prevent, protect and respond to “transboundary” health and
environmental issues - this system would take into account social and economic factors while going beyond humans
so as to address the “imbalances of natural ecosystems”. This is what can be defined as an ecocentric approach -
connecting global health, the human right to health and the environment - emphasizing on the fact that more than a
human right to a healthy environment what is important is the “recognition of every human, non-human being, and
ecosystem’s right to be a part of a health environment”4 - with prevention as a priority and all actions that are taken
are being done so considering the effect upon the environment.

Overall, the pandemic has shed some light upon the existing problems in the current system - asking for a change
not only in IEL but in international law as a whole, while also providing us with a framework for how changes
should be made. While an ecocentric approach seems as the right path for the future, legally analyzing the current
situation we can state that we are away from such a shift - there is a need for change but in order to have an
ecocentric approach the whole system should change fundamentally so as to encompass this view. While I believe
we are not currently witnessing an ecocentric turn of IEL, I strongly believe it represents the future of the whole
international law legal system and such a change will be seen sooner rather than later.

4
De Vido, S. (2020). A Quest for an Ecocentric Approach to International Law: the COVID-19 Pandemic as Game Changer. Jus Cogens.
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