The “new” right to water in the Latin-American constitutionalism

Abstract

The article analyses some elements of the Andean cosmovision that originated the New Latin-American Constitutionalism, and specially, the right to the water. In this new culture, oriented to the Buen Vivir (well living), the human right to the goods indispensable to the life is seen as a common inheritance, hence projecting itself to all living creatures, as well as to the future generations. This understanding represents a paradigmatic change already present in some Constitutions, as from Bolivia and Equator, assuming the understanding of the community in harmony, respect and equilibrium with life, celebrating the Pachamama (Mother Earth) from which all the living creatures are a part. In this perspective, having the Biocentric Ethics as a fundament, they bound the right to water to the right to the nature, orienting its management to the Buen Vivir. In this context, the political changes and the new social processes of fighting in the Latina-American States gave birth not only to new Constitutions, resulting in new social actors, plural realities and challenging biocentric practices, but, equally, considering the diversity of the cultures from the minorities, the uncontested strength from the indigenous peoples from the continent, the sustainable development policies and the protection of the natural common resources, point to a new constitutionalist paradigm, a Pluralistic Constitutionalism – synthesis of an indigenous, autochthonous, hybrid Constitutionalism.