’I would give nature rights’

Bavarian Alps © LMU - Jens Kersten, an expert in constitutional law, conducts research into the environment and society in the Anthropocene - and supports an international movement to provide nature with better legal protection. Interview with Professor Jens Kersten , Chair of Public Law and Governance at LMU. Mr. Kersten, to what extent does our environment already enjoy legal protection? Jens Kersten : Here in Germany, we have regulations and laws to protect nature and the environment on virtually every political level - from the local and regional levels to the national level. Local authorities have very good planning tools to protect nature in the vicinity of a new construction zone, for example. On the other hand, it is much more difficult to get owners to make their houses climate-friendly - for instance because the basic right to freedom of property ownership collides with environmental protection concerns. At the regional level, there are lots of new approaches to transform the relationship between nature and property. The constitutions of the eastern German states in particular have brought forth innovative environmental law provisions.