The Right to a Healthy Environment - 9780774824132

Canada has abundant natural wealth - beautiful landscapes,vast forests, and thousands of rivers and lakes. The land definesCanadians as a people, yet the country has one of the worstenvironmental records in the industrialized world.

Building on his previous book, The Environmental RightsRevolution (2012), David R. Boyd, one of Canada's leadingenvironmental lawyers, describes how recognizing the constitutionalright to a healthy environment could have a transformative impact byempowering citizens, holding governments and industry accountable, andimproving Canada's green record. The overwhelming majority of theworld's nations now recognize the right to a healthy environmentthrough laws, constitutions, treaties, or court decisions. Boydexplores Canada's history of failed efforts to do the same withinthis international context and evaluates three pathways toconstitutional recognition of the right to a healthy environment.The Right to a Healthy Environment makes the case thatconstitutional recognition of environmental rights and responsibilitieswould both reflect and reinforce Canadian values, much as the Charterof Rights and Freedoms confirmed and enhanced our commitment toequality.

Dr. David R. Boyd is one of Canada's leadingexperts in environmental law and policy and an adjunct professor in theSchool of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon FraserUniversity. He has advised the governments of Canada, Sweden, andIceland on environmental and constitutional issues and is the co-chairof Vancouver's Greenest City Action Team along with Mayor GregorRobertson. He is a member of the IUCN's Commission onEnvironmental Law, the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights andthe Environment, the Forum for Leadership on Water, and theEnvironmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW).

David Boyd is the author of several bestselling and award-winningbooks as well as more than a hundred publications related toenvironmental law and policy, including Unnatural Law:Rethinking Canadian Environmental Law and Policy. His currentresearch focuses on the effects of enshrining environmental rights andresponsibilities in national constitutions.