Water Rights at the interface of New Constitutionalism, Climate Change, and Extractivism in Latin America

The proliferation of rights of nature rulings have placed Latin America at the center of innovative legal, policy, and scholarly debates on a hemispheric and global scale. Previous focus on human rights and land redistribution in the wake of dictatorships, armed conflict, and agrarian struggles have transformed into grassroots movements and constitutional reforms dealing with climate justice, fundamental rights to healthy environments, and expanding concepts of legal personhood. Lyons’ research project focuses specifically on socio-environmental conflicts involving source drinking water and the protection of glaciers, watersheds, and aquifers. In so doing, Lyons will engage in comparative research in two contexts – Chile and Colombia – where rights to water, rights of bodies of water, and conflicts over the management of water cycles (from glacial contributions to water availability to surface and groundwater sources) are at the center of emergent constitutional reforms, political economic debates, and climate change mitigation strategies.