The Duty to Protect the Environment.

From anthropocentrism as a right to anthropocentrism as a duty towards future generations

Professor Fabrizio Fracchia

A substantial right whose content is the environment: this is, very often, from the juridical point of view, the paradigm used for explaining the sort of protected position within the legal system which could be referred to the citizens faced with the environment. The idea I would like to discuss, instead, also in a provocative way, is completely different, and is based upon three pillars: a) the environment is not a right; b) the purpose of the regulation is not to protect the environment, but the human species; c) a more comprehensive sector of law, namely intergenerational responsibility, is emerging.