Legal personality of the Mar Maenor lagoon and related righsts, from the ecocentrismo of Law 19/2022 and STC 142/2024

Abstract

The constitutionality of Law 19/2022 appears clear for STC 142/2024, given its moderate ecocentrism, and this is so because it only recognizes legal personality to a natural entity (article 1.1), such as the Mar Menor lagoon, and not to nature in general; furthermore, from the perspective of legal positivism, the ordinary legislator has the power to create a new subject of rights, with its own legal personality, outside the types provided for in articles 35 and 36 of the Civil Code; although, its only ownership will be the subjective rights specifically attributed to it by article 2.2, exercised by its guardianship (article 3); there are no vague or imprecise concepts in articles 4 and 5, but rather we are faced with legal standards of ethical conduct, determinable from the concepts of good faith, responsibility, etc., which will allow, as an open standard, to gradually adjust to the needs of the ecosystem and ecocentric demands. And finally, there is no such general power in article 6, although STC 142/2024 so states, but rather the active legitimacy is for the defense of diffuse interests.