Protección constitucional del medio ambiente en España y Europa

Abstract

The focus of law related to the environment recognized in the Spanish Constitution
embraces three distinguishable dimensions; subjective law, civil obligation, and guiding
principle of the State’s activity. Nevertheless, until recently, a sector of doctrine, and the
High Court itself, denied it such character, recognizing it simply as a guiding principle,
from which there was no possibility of separating before the courts its presumed subjective
pretensions. But, and attending exclusively to the mechanisms of guarantee and location,
it can be shown that this law forms part of fundamental rights. In this sense, the right to
an adequate environment, to be effective, demands positive and negative obligations in
the name of the State, which would permit this to be a «derecho a un todo». The
importance of its study from a constitutional point of view is therefore obvious, because
as occurs with the majority of social rights, it possesses strong community roots, affecting
every person immersed in a given economic and social context with specific needs
which must be firmly satisfied to guarantee a dignified life.