Living Forest Constitutionalism: Indigenous Jurisprudence and Rights of Nature in the Ecuadorian Amazon

Author
Jenny García Ruales

Publisher
Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 

Year of publication
2026

ISBN
978-3-8376-8250-2

AnthroSearch

Abstract
If Pacha Mama or Nature was already recognised as a subject of rights in Ecuador’s Constitution, why did the Kichwa People of Sarayaku declare their territory the Living Forest (Kawsak Sacha) in 2018 – ›a living and conscious being with rights of its own‹? Drawing on accompanied legal ethnography in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Jenny García Ruales traces this question through Indigenous jurisprudence and the more-than-human normativities of the Living Forest. She develops Living Forest Constitutionalism, a constitutional theory that reimagines the foundations of constitutionalism from the jurisprudence of the Living Forest. An essential resource for scholars and readers seeking to rethink where constitutions come from, who makes law, and what it means to defend life.