The Implementation of the Ecocentric Paradigm in Amazonian Jurisdictions: The Constitutionalization of Traditional Culture and the Rights of Nature in Bolivia and Ecuador
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Humanity is currently facing a severe ecological crisis, marked by the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources, such as the deforestation of the Amazon, whose protection largely depends on Indigenous populations. Their cosmocentric worldview challenges the anthropocentric perspective typical of Western legal culture, promoting ecocentric or biocentric approaches. Building on this context, this study adopts a comparative approach to examine how the Indigenous cosmovision and the ecocentric paradigm are implemented in Ecuador and Bolivia, drawing on Rodolfo Sacco’s theory of legal formants. By analysing the political, normative, and judicial formants, this work aims to verify the effective implementation and implications of the Indigenous cosmovision of buen vivir in Ecuador and Bolivia, also in light of the contradictions arising from the regulation of natural resource exploitation.
Source: Latin American Legal Studies
Author: Maria Francesca Cavalcanti
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7151624603