The Constitutional Right to Save the Environment
January 2022
Citation:
52
ELR 10007
Issue
1
More than 50 years ago, Franklin Kury drafted and championed an Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. His book, The Constitutional Question to Save the Planet: The Right to a Healthy Environment (ELI Press 2021), expands upon the story of his amendment to demonstrate how its principles can be the basis for addressing climate change in the rest of the world. On October 13, 2021, the Environmental Law Institute hosted Kury and leading experts to explore the impact environmental rights amendments can have on stabilizing the climate system through legal channels at the state and federal levels. Here, we present a transcript of that discussion, which has been edited for style, clarity, and space considerations.