The rights of nature: A paradigm shift in light of the case of the Mar Menor

Abstract

This article addresses the complex relationship between ecological justice and time based on the first case of recognition of rights of nature in Europe: the attribution of legal personality to the Mar Menor in Spain. The case of the Mar Menor is presented as a legal reaction to a time of paradigm shift. In this sense, Mar Menor rights are not treated as a theoretical and practical innovation forged exclusively within the Spanish legal field, but as a transformative force and a significant aspect in the context of a broader onto-epistemological shift. This article offers a historization of the ecological collapse of the Mar Menor and the process which lead and followed the approval of Law 19/2022. In addition, it addresses the link between Mar Menor rights and time by reflecting on two constitutive processes of the ecology of law that this article stands for: the democratization of law and the ‘commoning’ of law.