Spain National Mar Menor Act of 2022

Summary

On September 30, 2022, Spain passed a national law granting legal personhood to the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin, making it the first ecosystem in Europe to be recognized as a rights-bearing legal entity. Law 19/2022 formally recognized the Mar Menor and its basin as a legal person, and provides the Mar Menor lagoon with the legal, scientific, and institutional tools to defend itself.

Timeline
Law 19/2022 was the result of a citizen-led Iniciativa Legislativa Popular (ILP) launched in July 2020 by local residents and legal scholars Teresa Vicente Giménez and Dr. Eduardo Salazar-Ortuño. In collaboration with several NGOs, they drafted a final text that recognized the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin as a legal person with “rights to protection, conservation, maintenance, and, where appropriate, restoration.” By August 2021, they had gathered more than 600,000 signatures for the ILP—surpassing the 500k threshold required to trigger a parliamentary vote.

On 5 April 2022, Spain’s Parliament approved the proposed law by a vote of 274–53, followed by the Senate’s endorsement on September 21 with a vote of 230 in favor and 3 against.

Legal Provisions
The law articulates four fundamental rights of the Mar Menor: the rights to exist and evolve naturally, to protection, to conservation, and to restoration. Articles III and IV establish the lagoon’s governance structure, which is comprised of three committees that are tasked with acting as legal guardians and representing the ecosystem in administrative and judicial processes: a Committee of Representatives, a Scientific Committee, and a Monitoring Commission. Importantly, the law also grants standing to any natural person to defend and enforce the Mar Menor’s rights. Both provisions significantly broaden legal access and accountability mechanisms, and the capacity of citizens to participate directly in the governance and active stewardship of the ecosystem.

Enforcement
In August 2023, a local court applied the law in a legal proceeding against environmental damage from landfill discharges, granting the Mar Menor (through its Guardians) the right to appear as civil parties in court, empowering multiple NGOs and municipalities to act on its behalf. In November 2024, Spain’s Constitutional Court reaffirmed its constitutional validity in the face of political opposition, making it the first case in the EU to recognize Rights of Nature at a constitutional level.

Recognition and Implementation
In 2024, Teresa Vicente Giménez received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her role in advancing the Mar Menor law—the first time Rights of Nature work was awarded the prize. In May 2025, the Mar Menor ecosystem officially received a tax ID (NIF), bank account, and functioning governance organs (the three aforementioned committees).

On 22 May 2026, the Mar Menor served as a plaintiff for the first time in court, in a case against an agricultural company accused of pollution. In parallel, Mar Menor will be the first natural entity in Europe to bring a claim before the European Court of Human Rights, alleging violations of Article 6 (right to a fair trial) and other provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Impact Statement

The passage of the 2022 Mar Menor law established a major precedent in Europe as the first ecosystem to be recognized as a legal person. It demonstrated the viability of rights-based legislation to address ecological crises, and the power of community-driven processes, and offers a replicable model for rights-based ecosystem protection in Europe. The law has since inspired similar initiatives across Europe, including proposals for the Venice Lagoon and the Mediterranean Sea, positioning Mar Menor as a catalyst for a broader movement to integrate rights of nature into European legal and policy systems.

Involved Organizations

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