CLIMATE JUSTICE AS COMMUNITARIAN LEGAL PLURALISM: INDIGENOUS STEWARDSHIP, RIGHTS OF NATURE, AND THE LIMITS OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Abstract

This paper argues that the persistent failure of international environmental law to address the climate crisis stems from its ontological and juridical limitations, which can only be overcome through embracing Communitarian Legal Pluralism (CLP) as the foundation for climate justice. The dominant paradigm of international environmental law remains anchored in anthropocentric, state-centric, and market-based approaches that treat nature as a resource to be managed rather than a relative with inherent rights. Through case studies of Indigenous stewardship practices, Rights of Nature legal frameworks, and specific climate justice movements, this research demonstrates how CLP provides the theoretical architecture for recognizing multiple, coexisting legal ontologies in climate governance. The paper examines how Indigenous legal orders embody CLP principles through their emphasis on relational accountability, intergenerational responsibility, and the moral embeddedness of law in specific ecosystems. By analyzing the implementation of Rights of Nature provisions in Ecuador, New Zealand, and Bolivia, we reveal how CLP facilitates the translation of Indigenous juridical concepts into state legal systems while maintaining their community-based legitimacy. The findings suggest that effective climate governance requires moving beyond the fiction of legal monism toward a pluralist framework that honors diverse legal traditions and their distinctive approaches to human-environment relations. This research contributes to emerging scholarship at the intersection of climate justice, legal pluralism, and decolonial theory, offering concrete pathways for transforming climate governance through epistemic justice and legal diversity.