Anita Boros, Gyula Koi (eds): Sustainability and Law
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4. Constitutional and legal relations to sustainability: terms, environmental constitution(alism), constitutional environment (László Vértesy)
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4.2. Environmental constitution(alism), constitutional environment
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4.2.2. Constitutional Duties and Sustainability Obligations

4.2.2. Constitutional Duties and Sustainability Obligations

 

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Constitutions not only confer rights but also impose duties – on both states and citizens. The sustainability framework strengthens and broadens these obligations.
 
Duties of the State

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Modern constitutions increasingly place positive legal duties for the state to safeguard and administer natural resources. These duties affirm: (i) biodiversity and ecological balance ecosystems must be preserved; (ii) development must be sustainable; (iii) States will regulate polluters via environmental legislation and environmental enforcement; and (iv) climate and sustainability goals will permeate fiscal and budgetary processes.1 These duties often associate with some constitutional trust doctrine whereby a natural resource is being held in trust for the people, and thus governments act as fiduciaries. The U.S. Public Trust Doctrine has had some application rising in India, South Africa, and Uganda onward as a mechanism to constitutionalise resource stewardship.2

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In constitutions which recognise environmental protection as a core tenet of sustainable development, it is the responsibility of the state to secure biological diversity and ecological equilibrium, integrity.3 This means that species should be protected, the ecosystem should be preserved, and altered natural habitats should not be put at risk. Constitutional jurisprudence has appeared to articulate that developed responsibility within the intergenerational equity principle: the ecosystems that sustain life must be protected for the benefit of future generations.

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Sustainable development – striking a balance between economic growth, environmental protection and social equity – has become an integrated organising principle of constitutional environmental law.4 States are expected to implement sustainable development across all areas of governance so that development does not trump environmental sustainability or social justice. This means having a constitutional responsibility to not only strategically plan and vision into the future, but also to manage competing interests through democratic decision-making processes.

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A key constitutional function is to make and implement environmental laws able to regulate polluters by means of environmental legislation and regulation. A key part of this process includes the application of key legal principles, such as: (i) the ‘polluter pays’ (meaning those who pollute are responsible to remediate – they must pay); (ii) precaution (requiring the polluter prevent pollution unless they can prove through a scientific method that they are not causing any harm); (iii) environmental impact statements – showing foresight in the policy and project approval process.5 The state is not only responsible for legislation, but also institutional capacity and capability (administrations, environmental agencies, and courts) to ensure compliance and accountability.

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Constitutional sustainability involves a legal duty and responsibility, as well as a fiscal and budget process of fiscal policy, that delivers the longer-term fiscal policy goals of climate and sustainability.6 Increasingly, domestic public policy requires states to factor into their public budget, taxation policies, and fiscal plans the delivery of sustainable and climate resilience objectives - namely: (i) identifying components of public spending that are supportive of new renewable energy, conservation agendas and sustainable infrastructure; (ii) creating green taxes (i.e. coupled with a carbon tax, eco-levies) to manage and internalise environmental costs; (iii) creating a transparent plan for domestic subsidies from non-environmentally-friendly practices; and (iv) consciously integrating climate risk into the overall fiscal planning and footprint encompassing all of the elements of fiscal policy and overall national debt sustainability. In this way, constitutional economics provides a possible platform for delivering longer-term environmental objectives, whilst also being fiscally cautious, along with building further strategy and vision which looks beyond 5 to 10 years.
 
Duties of Citizens

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Beyond the inherent role of the state, many current constitutions also directly designate responsibilities for individuals to protect and maintain the environment. These citizen responsibilities delineate duties not only as ethical expectations, but also increasingly justiciable constitutional responsibilities, which provide a complement to public authority in meeting their sustainability obligations. Therefore, environmental citizenship is reframed for the purposes of this discussion as a mode of civic duty grounded in legal and constitutional norms: (i) constitutional recognition of responsibilities; (ii) actionable citizen duties towards sustainable action; (iii) civic engagement, however defined; and (iv) environmental education and duties to future generations.7

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Numerous constitutions stipulate concrete duties upon citizens regarding environmental responsibilities.8 The Portuguese Constitution (Article 66) requires all citizens to protect and preserve the environment. The South African Constitution relates the rights to a healthy environment to duties, requiring an individual’s behaviour to be consistent with maintaining the integrity of the environment. The Hungarian Fundamental Law (Article P) says that “natural resources, especially agricultural land, forests and drinking water, biodiversity and cultural values are the common heritage of the Nation,” requiring every person to act in protection and preservation of it. Similarly, Article 51A(g) of the Indian Constitution directs every citizen to “protect and improve the natural environment.”9 Although they are often not justiciable, these provisions help nurture an ecological civic culture that reinforces that sustainability is a collective constitutional project. They do not only confer abstract principles but could establish the foundation for enforceable duties, especially when tied with environmental harm or negligence.

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These general obligations are implemented with concrete citizen duties in support of sustainability.10 Citizens are expected to refrain from environmentally damaging acts – such as littering and polluting or overusing natural capital – and perform actions that promote ecological equilibrium. Recycling, reducing energy use, using sustainable transportation, and being mindful consumers of our environment, all contribute. Through these daily practices, individuals help toward our collective obligation of preserving the ecology. For checks on environmental harms, individual citizens are expected to refrain from engaging in activities that pollute, damage, and otherwise harm the natural. Although individual duties to the environment are often broad, tiny, and dispersed in space, they become powerful in their wide participation and cumulative impact.

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Many constitutions enshrine civic participation and democratic engagement in environmental governance.11 Citizens do not just have a legal obligation to follow laws related to the environment, they have a right to participate in the process of developing those laws (and certain frameworks characterise a responsibility). Civic engagement to obtain environmental information, to participate in public consultation, and in many jurisdictions, to take legal action when there is environmental harm, are participatory democracy. Using these participatory mechanisms to hold both state actors and corporate actors accountable allows for citizens’ engagement in decision-making that impacts ecological outcomes. Environmental democracy grounded in a constitution truly requires a population that is both informed and active. These types of participatory rights are often coupled with a moral obligation to exercise them responsibly.12 Citizens are charged with protecting not just their individual rights, but rather the collective interest of the community and future generations, like the right to legal remedies for environmental harm or unconstitutional actions.

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Ultimately, the long-term applicability of constitutional sustainability relies on environmental education and a generational responsibility.13 Citizens must have the relevant knowledge and values to grasp the environmental challenges and be motivated to act. Most constitutional or statutory structures incorporate various aspects of environmental education as the essence of sustainable citizenship, including formal education in schools and universities, broader public awareness efforts, and a variety of life-long learning opportunities. At its core is the relational notion of intergenerational solidarity, as today’s citizens must act in a manner that is in the best interest of (present and) future generations’ rights and well-being. Consequently, environmental responsibilities extend beyond mere compliance on the part of today’s citizens, and they are rooted in a larger duty of care for and prudence about distant others.
 
1 Bosselmann, K. (2016). The principle of sustainability. Transforming law and governance. (London:Routledge). 272. E-book ISBN: 9781315553955 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315553955 Second edition; Pápa, L., & Valentinyi, Á. (2008). ‘Költségvetési fenntarthatóság,’ [Budgetary sustainability], Közgazdasági Szemle [Economic Review], 55(5), 395-426.
2

Ryan, E. (2020). A short history of the public trust doctrine and its intersection with private water law. Va. Envtl. LJ, 38, 135.

Ryan, E., Curry, H., & Rule, H. (2020). Environmental rights for the 21st century: a comprehensive analysis of the public trust doctrine and rights of nature movement. Cardozo L. Rev., 42, 2447.

Blumm, M. C., & Wood, M. C. (2024). The public trust doctrine in environmental and natural resources law. (Durham, N.C.:Caroline Academic Press). URL: https://cap-press.com/pdf/BlummPublicTrustDoctrine3e2024SuppWM.pdf (accessed: (accessed: 29 October 2024).

3 Storch, D., Šímová, I., Smyčka, J., Bohdalková, E., Toszogyova, A., & Okie, J. G. (2022). Biodiversity dynamics in the Anthropocene: how human activities change equilibria of species richness. Ecography, 2022(4).
4

Yang, Z., Gao, W., & Li, J. (2022). Can economic growth and environmental protection achieve a “win–win” situation? Empirical evidence from China. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(16), 9851.

Čábelková, I., Smutka, L., Mareš, D., Ortikov, A., & Kontsevaya, S. (2023). Environmental protection or economic growth? The effects of preferences for individual freedoms. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11, 1129236.

5 Ovodenko, A. (2017). Regulating the polluters: markets and strategies for protecting the global environment. (Oxford:Oxford University Press). xvi, 233. Print ISBN: 9780190677725 Online ISBN: 9780190677756 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190677725.001.0001
6

Mihajlovic, M. B., & Jeremic, D. R. (2020). The Role of Fiscal Policy in Sustainable Development. Kultura Polisa, 17, 541.

Dinh, L. Q., Oanh, T. T. K., & Ha, N. T. H. (2025). Financial stability and sustainable development: perspectives from fiscal and monetary policy. International Journal of Finance & Economics, 30(2), 1724-1741.

7

Hadjichambis, A. C., Reis, P., Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, D., Činčera, J., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Gericke, N., & Knippels, M. C. (2020). Conceptualizing environmental citizenship for 21st century education . (Cham:Springer Nature). xii, 261. Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20248-4 Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20251-4 e-Book ISBN: 978-3-030-20249-1 Series ISSN: 2352-7307 Series e-ISSN: 2352-7315

Reis, P. (2020). Environmental citizenship and youth activism. In: Hadjichambis, A. C., Reis, P., Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, D., Činčera, J., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Gericke, N., & Knippels, M. C. (2020). Conceptualizing environmental citizenship for 21st century education . (Cham:Springer Nature). 139-148. Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20248-4 Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20251-4 e-Book ISBN: 978-3-030-20249-1 Series ISSN: 2352-7307 Series e-ISSN: 2352-7315

8

Falkner, R., & Buzan, B. (Eds.). (2022). Great powers, climate change, and global environmental responsibilities. (Oxford:Oxford University Press). 277. Print ISBN: 9780198866022Online ISBN: 9780191898341 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198866022.001.0001

Zheng, G. W., Siddik, A. B., Masukujjaman, M., Alam, S. S., & Akter, A. (2020). Perceived environmental responsibilities and green buying behavior: The mediating effect of attitude. Sustainability, 13(1), 35.

9 Constitution of India. https://legislative.gov.in/constitution-of-india/
10 Micheletti, M., Stolle, D., & Berlin, D. (2014). Sustainable citizenship: The role of citizens and consumers as agents of the environmental state. In: Duits, A. (ed.). State and environment: The comparative study of environmental governance. (Cambridge (Mass.):The MTI Press). 203-236. Print ISBN: 9780262027120 Online ISBN: 9780262323871 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262027120.001.0001
11

Santos, S., Ravara, P., & Rodrigues, D. (2021). Guide for Participation in Democratic Environmental Governance. URL: https://www.wfd.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/Env.Democracy%2006.05.21.pdf (accessed: 29 October 2024).

Worthington, R., Rask, M., & Minna, L. (Eds.). (2013). Citizen participation in global environmental governance. (London:Routledge) 320. e-Book ISBN: DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315870458

Newig, J., & Kvarda, E. (2012). Participation in environmental governance: legitimate and effective?. In:Hogl, K. (ed.). Environmental governance. (Cheltenham (UK)-Northampton (US):Edward Elgar Publishing). 28-50. ISBN: 978 1 84980 270 3 DOI: 10.4337/9781849802703.00010 URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236646238_Participation_in_environmental_governance_Legitimate_and_effective (accessed: 29 October 2024).

12 Ogiemwonyi, O., & Jan, M. T. (2023). The correlative influence of consumer ethical beliefs, environmental ethics, and moral obligation on green consumption behavior. Resources, Conservation & Recycling Advances, 19, 200171.
13

Parra, G., Hansmann, R., Hadjichambis, A. C., Goldman, D., Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, D., Sund, P., ... & Conti, D. (2020). Education for environmental citizenship and education for sustainability. In: Hadjichambis, A. C., Reis, P., Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, D., Činčera, J., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Gericke, N., & Knippels, M. C. (2020). Conceptualizing environmental citizenship for 21st century education. (Cham:Springer Nature). 149-160. Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20248-4 Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-20251-4 e-Book ISBN: 978-3-030-20249-1 Series ISSN: 2352-7307 Series e-ISSN: 2352-7315

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

Weaver, D. B., Moyle, B., & McLennan, C. L. J. (2022). The citizen within: Positioning local residents for sustainable tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 30(4), 897-914.
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