Spain Constitutional Court Case: Mar Menor Act of 2022

Summary

On 20 November 2024, Spain’s Constitutional Court issued a ruling upholding the Mar Menor Act 19/2022 and declaring the constitutionality of the law. The Mar Menor Act was the first national law in Europe to recognize an ecosystem as a legal person under the law, and granted legal rights to the Mar Menor Lagoon and its basin.

Legal Challenge
The constitutional challenge was brought by opponents who argued “that the recognition of legal personality to a natural entity (art. 1) and attributing rights to it (art. 2), which are entrusted to a popular action (art. 6), is unusual and distorts the concept of ‘person’, being absolutely unnecessary for the purposes of obtaining proper environmental protection.”

The appellants argued that nature should be the object of legal protection (Article 45 of the Spanish Constitution), but not a subject of rights, and contend that it is impossible to separate the notion of rights from those of dignity, conscience, will, and responsibility. They argued that only human beings can possess dignity (Article 10.1 of the Spanish Constitution) and can exercise and defend their rights (Article 24.1 of the Spanish Constitution).

Legal Ruling
The Court dismissed the claims of unconstitutionality raised on the basis of Articles 10.1, 24.1 and 45 and affirmed that the Rights of Nature are fully compatible with the Spanish Constitution, marking the first time an EU member state’s highest constitutional authority has explicitly recognized the legitimacy of a Rights of Nature framework. The Court underscored the importance of integrating non-anthropocentric legal approaches into environmental governance, and emphasized that protecting ecosystems as subjects of rights is consistent with constitutional principles of environmental protection, democratic participation, and human wellbeing.

Law 19/2022 is a unique piece of legislation that creates a new type of legal entity, a natural entity, seeking to grant it a series of powers in defense of its own existence and recovery. Although this technique is unprecedented in our environmental law, it has already been shown that it is not unknown in comparative law, and that it is part of a growing international movement of the last decade (p 14)

From the ecocentric approach, which we understand to be more appropriate in this case…what the Law does is attribute to the Mar Menor and its basin the only thing that can be attributed to legal norms: a legal personality that, by nature, is different from human personality (p 18)

The Court found that the “tool of attributing legal personality to the wetland” creates “a cross-cutting environmental protection regulation” and that “cross-cutting nature is central to the definition of the concept of the environment established by this Court” in Constitutional Court Judgment 102/1995, of June 26 where the Court defined the environment as a “complex framework of relations” rather than a mere sum of natural resources (p 19).

The Court recognized that whiles it’s doctrine had been recognizing the environment as “an essentially anthropocentric concept” (STC 102/1995, of June 26), “now this conception is being moderated to open it to a more ecocentric vision, which assumes the undeniable connection between the quality of life of ecosystems and the quality of human life.” It emphasized that this ecocentric perspective offers a wide margin to the legislator, who must bear in mind the protective purposes of Article 45 not only regarding the natural environment, but also regarding future generations (p 17).

Impact Statement

By validating the Act, the Court set a constitutional-level precedent that secured the continued enforcement of the Mar Menor Act and reinforced the capacity of individuals to defend the ecosystem’s rights in court.

The Constitutional Court lawsuit posed a critical test for the Rights of Nature in Spain, with implications across Europe and globally. The decision strengthened the jurisprudence of rights of nature and environmental personhood, and demonstrated that such frameworks can withstand judicial scrutiny. The ruling set a national and regional precedent for the viability of Rights of Nature within European legal systems, and serves as a reference point for courts, lawmakers, and communities who look to the Mar Menor Act of 2022 as a legal model. More broadly, this ruling opens the door further adoption of Rights of Nature laws within Spain, and potentially the European Union.

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