The Recognition of Nature as a Subject of Rights: An Opportunity to Rethink Land Use Planning as an Administrative Function

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the possibilities that appear for Administrative Law from the recognition of nature as a subject of rights, a category to rethink the link between the human being and the environment, that pretends to configure new legal relationships between the State and nature based on the transformation of the legal status of nature of being an object to be a subject to protection. This study is based on a documentary review of the backgrounds, theoretical foundations and the development of nature as a subject of rights. Land use planning is analyzed as a field of the administrative function in which it is necessary to identify the implications of the recognition of nature as a subject of rights for State functions from ecocentric perspectives. The examination concludes that, in a context and climate change, it is essential to reevaluate the administrative functions that are related to environmental, climatic and territorial protection because the survival of ecosystems, human beings and cultures as priority purpose for public administration.