Human and Non-Human Beings: Towards the Affirmation of the Rights of Nature and of a Right to a Healthy Environment

This short comment connects the aspects of Corradetti’s book "Relativism and human rights" with international environmental law, and, more specifically, to the rights of nature and the gradual affirmation of a human right to a healthy environment, which takes into consideration the interests of the human beings and nature alike. The analysis starts from some reflections on the concept of ‘common concern of human kind,’ then acknowledges the absence in Corradetti’s book of reference to non-human beings and other elements of nature. It further asks a question (to the author and in general): whether it is possible to conceive a cosmopolitan law that not only recognises a place in the world for all human beings, but also appreciates the place of non-human beings and of the environment per se on one hand and as related to the existence of human beings on the other. It eventually explores the concept of ‘cosmopolitan authority’ in the context of the (though limited) jurisprudence on environment of regional human rights courts. It concludes by arguing that cosmopolitan law can be better appreciated when we endorse a broad understanding of the subjects of this system, which include the ‘us’, namely human, non-human beings, and the environment. This point of view embraces present and future generations, both entitled of human dignity.