UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Toward an Animal Law from the South: Why More-Than-Human Rights Flourished in Latin America

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.1017/pub.2026.10231

Authors

Ricardo Díaz-Alarcón

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.564967+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:16:14.559040+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

University of Toronto

Reported affiliation countries

CA

Documentary abstract — original language

Abstract This article examines how constitutional courts in Latin America have brought animal protection into constitutional law despite limited constitutional texts. It asks how and why courts in Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil have become global leaders in recognizing rights for animals and other more-than-human entities, and the role Indigenous epistemologies played in this process. Through a comparative analysis of constitutional case law, the article argues that courts in these three countries have developed an unwritten constitutional animal law through creative interpretation: Ecuador by extending the rights of nature to individual animals, Colombia by deriving an animal protection mandate from its “ecological Constitution,” and Brazil by transforming an anticruelty clause into a biocentric framework through regional dialog. These developments cannot be understood as straightforward incorporations of Indigenous epistemologies. Instead, they are better described as products of “entangled legalities,” formed through ongoing interactions among Indigenous knowledge, Western law, and other normative orders. This approach shows that the transformative consequences of the rights of nature and related concepts are indeterminate and depend on how these doctrines are mobilized. The article concludes by proposing that this jurisprudence represents an “animal law from the South,” shaped by the distinctive role of courts in Global South jurisdictions.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W7208775763

DOI

10.1017/pub.2026.10231

OPENAIRE

doi_________::a8e98555b7b780722847271b744fc1af

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

Article · article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

BR · CO · EC

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAIRE · Record 1

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1017/pub.2026.10231
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7208775763

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w2033237689 · CITES
• openalex:w2079391162 · CITES
• openalex:w2086559285 · CITES
• openalex:w2460088707 · CITES
• Environment, Political Representation and the Challenge of Rights: Speaking for Nature · CITES
• Can Rights of Nature Make Development More Sustainable? Why Some Ecuadorian lawsuits Succeed and Others Fail · CITES
• Somewhere between Rhetoric and Reality: Environmental Constitutionalism and the Rights of Nature in Ecuador · CITES
• openalex:w2808448569 · CITES
• El constitucionalismo radical ambiental y la diversidad cultural en América Latina. Los derechos de la naturaleza y el buen vivir en Ecuador y Bolivia · CITES
• openalex:w2913509513 · CITES
• Constitutional law, ecosystems, and indigenous peoples in Colombia: biocultural rights and legal subjects · CITES
• openalex:w3081576253 · CITES
• openalex:w3142741377 · CITES
• openalex:w3173953052 · CITES
• openalex:w3180554447 · CITES
• openalex:w4220664279 · CITES
• openalex:w4220853144 · CITES
• Entangled Legalities Beyond the State · CITES
• openalex:w4241317884 · CITES
• openalex:w4283385442 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Detected scholarly publication

Library

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