Book contents
- Environmental Rights
- Environmental Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Table of Cases, Communications and Advisory Opinions
- Table of Treaties
- Table of International Declarations, Resolutions, Guidelines and Standard Setting Instruments
- Table of European Union Directives
- 1 Introduction: A Brief History of Environmental Rights and the Development of Standards
- 2 Environmental Rights and International Human Rights Covenants: What Standards Are Relevant?
- 3 The ECHR, Environment-Based Human Rights Claims and the Search for Standards
- 4 The American Convention on Human Rights and Environmental Rights Standards
- 5 The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Environmental Rights Standards
- 6 The Aarhus Convention: Standards for Access to Justice in Environmental Matters
- 7 The Emergence of Standards regarding the Right of Access to Water and Sanitation
- 8 Standards in the Procedural Rights of Multilateral Environmental Agreements
- 9 A Stock-Taking of FPIC Standards in International Environmental Law
- 10 Environmental Standards and the Right to Life in India: Regulatory Frameworks and Judicial Enterprise
- 11 Environmental Standards in the Portuguese Constitution
- 12 The Argentine Constitution and Its Relationship with Environmental Standards
- 13 The South African Constitution – Standards of Environmental Protection
- 14 The French Charter of the Environment and Standards of Environmental Protection
- 15 The Constitution of Bhutan: A Quantitative Environmental Standard
- 16 The Rights of Nature: Guiding Our Responsibilities through Standards
- 17 Standards in Subnational Environmental Constitutionalism
- 18 Conclusion: Analysing the Development of Standards in the Field of Environmental Rights
- Index
15 - The Constitution of Bhutan: A Quantitative Environmental Standard
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2019
Book contents
- Environmental Rights
- Environmental Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Table of Cases, Communications and Advisory Opinions
- Table of Treaties
- Table of International Declarations, Resolutions, Guidelines and Standard Setting Instruments
- Table of European Union Directives
- 1 Introduction: A Brief History of Environmental Rights and the Development of Standards
- 2 Environmental Rights and International Human Rights Covenants: What Standards Are Relevant?
- 3 The ECHR, Environment-Based Human Rights Claims and the Search for Standards
- 4 The American Convention on Human Rights and Environmental Rights Standards
- 5 The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Environmental Rights Standards
- 6 The Aarhus Convention: Standards for Access to Justice in Environmental Matters
- 7 The Emergence of Standards regarding the Right of Access to Water and Sanitation
- 8 Standards in the Procedural Rights of Multilateral Environmental Agreements
- 9 A Stock-Taking of FPIC Standards in International Environmental Law
- 10 Environmental Standards and the Right to Life in India: Regulatory Frameworks and Judicial Enterprise
- 11 Environmental Standards in the Portuguese Constitution
- 12 The Argentine Constitution and Its Relationship with Environmental Standards
- 13 The South African Constitution – Standards of Environmental Protection
- 14 The French Charter of the Environment and Standards of Environmental Protection
- 15 The Constitution of Bhutan: A Quantitative Environmental Standard
- 16 The Rights of Nature: Guiding Our Responsibilities through Standards
- 17 Standards in Subnational Environmental Constitutionalism
- 18 Conclusion: Analysing the Development of Standards in the Field of Environmental Rights
- Index
Summary
In 2008, the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan promulgated a written national constitution. This formed part of a constitutional transition that the country has been undertaking to move from having an absolute monarchy to a democratically based form of government. The new constitution contains a provision relating to the protection of the environment which includes a requirement that the government should maintain at least 60 per cent of the land mass under forest cover for all time. This was the first time that any country had included a quantitative environmental standard of this type within a national constitution. This chapter considers this provision with a view to understanding its significance in terms of the manner in which forests are managed in Bhutan and the rights that its citizens have to challenge related government policy. However, it also considers the influence that this type of standard is having and could potentially have in other jurisdictions and human rights regimes around the globe.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Environmental RightsThe Development of Standards, pp. 323 - 341Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019