Cross-fertilization of environmental law in the SAARC: exploring substantive and constitutional environmental rights

This chapter explores environmental law within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC countries share the constitutional recognition to a right to a clean environment. Whilst this is explicit in newly created constitutions (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Nepal), this right has been read into other existing rights (such as the right to life) in older constitutions (India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). The former have borrowed principles and ideas from the latter through shared constitutional mechanisms, that is, Directive Principles thus illustrating the cross-fertilization of environmental law within the SAARC. Furthermore, SAARC members share implementation and enforcement challenges, including a lack of technical, human and financial capacity, as well as low environmental literacy. The SAARC can overcome these challenges by improving access to justice to allow maturation of environmental law and to further regional cooperation.