Democrazia ambientale e accesso alla giustizia

The essay critically addresses political democracy as a ‘closed circuit’, historically devoted to human species and/or to some defined sections of individuals. Thus, the analysis points out the limits of this theory to further highlight the impact on constitutional systems deriving from the crucial need to identify a ‘safe operating space’, avoiding irreversible effects on ecosystems. Environmental constitutionalism – in spite of its generally weak prescriptive features – reveals new elements, i.e. some new forms of the ‘ecological State’ emerging through ecodemocracy. Even if the approach might be seem as largely utopian, an extension of the demos at the base of the democratic process is arising, and new legal subjectivities (both from the animal world and from the Nature, such as water bodies) are finding a proper area within the legal space. Moving from the aforementioned considerations, conclusion focuses on some features of ecological justice – closely connected and intertwined to eco-democracy –, deepening the issues of the reduction of its access and the need to facilitate, instead, an inclusive aggregation, thus taking into account the wide-spreading demands for protection of the environment and climate stability.