Relativity of Environmental Rights: On Justification of Purposive Environmental Rights

Environmental rights in the early days, as a product of the combination of environmental crises and the ideas of human rights, had a tendency toward being considered absolute. Absolute environmental rights are of enlightening significance in the context of "existing problems in the absence of a system." However, absolute environmental rights only consider environmental protection while excluding social and economic interests, and therefore cannot be exer- cised in legal practice. Legal practice now recognizes relative environ- mental rights that coordinate environmental protection and social and economic development. Given the ambiguous content of environmental rights, it is inappropriate to use external restrictions, and only internal restrictions can be applied. The content of environmental rights should be changed to take into account social and economic factors, and the inevitable result of the change is the shift from absolute environmen- tal rights to relative environmental rights. The legislative purpose of environmental laws in various countries is the dualism of purpose that coordinates environmental protection with social and economic devel- opment. The dualism of purpose dovetails with relative environmental rights, and environmental rights should be positioned as purposive environmental rights in environmental law.