ABSTRACT
To appreciate the impact of environmental human rights in contemporary human rights theory and politics it is essential to account for both sides of their emergence in international agreements and in scholarly debate. In what follows I will begin by exploring how environmental human rights have been incorporated into recent international conventions and agreements over the past thirty years. It can also be noted in passing that during that time several newly
written national constitutions have also incorporated various versions of environmental rights. By 1998 over fifty national constitutions included language referring to either expressly stated environmental rights or to state obligations to protect the environmental heritage of present and future generations (Anton 1998 ). Though the United States Constitution does not include environmental rights in its Bill of Rights, five state constitutions – Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, and Pennsylvania – explicitly name the right to a healthy environment.
