Towards a law for the recognition and rights guarantee for environmentally affected peoples

Abstract

We inscribe our work within the contemporary developments of Critical Theory and Environmental Justice, understanding the latter as the extension and institutionalization of recognition relationships in the face of the growing violation of collective rights and interests in situations of environmental contamination. From a pragmatist perspective, we place a three-dimensional Justice for the structuring of a law-making process that departs from concrete cases, experience and production of knowledge for the resolution of this public problem.

Recognition, Representation and Redistribution (Compensation) are the three dimensions considered key to respond to claims for individual, collective, and diffuse interests.

From this framework we first critically analyze aspects of the Civil and Commercial Code of the Nation; Secondly, we went to the analysis of related legislation in the region, of Mexico and Colombia, which are advancing in the conformation of an institutional system for the integral reparation of victims.

The presentation is a progress report of a work we do with a co-research methodology, in a dialogical process with groups of environmental affected people from the province of Córdoba-Argentina, academics, legal operators, legislators and other citizens, in a consistent manner with the deliberative and public nature of Environmental Justice.