Foundations of Ecological Justice for the Recognition of the Gaps in Peru as subjects of Law

Abstract

The accelerated degradation of Andean Lake ecosystems due to intense extractive activities, urban growth and climate change reveals a structural failure of conventional environmental law, whose anthropocentric ontology reduces nature to an object of resources instead of recognizing it as an entity with rights. This article examines the theoretical and dogmatic foundations of ecological justice, as a viable framework for the recognition of the Peruvian high Andean lagoons, as subjects of law within an ecocentric constitutional paradigm. Based on Earth Jurisprudence, Robyn Eckersley's (2004) ecological democracy, Val Plumwood's (2002) critique of anthropocentric dualism, and the biocentric turn embodied in the Latin American tradition of Buen Vivir, Sumak Kawsay, we argue that the transition from a State governed by Environmental Law to an Ecological State governed by Law is, both dogmatically coherent and ecologically necessary. Through the comparative constitutional analysis of emblematic precedents such as the Atrato River ruling in Colombia, (T-622/16), the Te Awa Tupua Law of New Zealand, (2017), and the Spanish law on the recognition of legal personality of the Mar Menor, (Law 19/2022) we demonstrate that granting the gaps autonomous procedural legitimacy, immunity from structural degradation and an enforceable right to integral restoration constitutes,  not a legal fiction, but a scientifically grounded and constitutionally legitimate response to the ecological emergency. This article argues that the current Peruvian regulatory framework, based on Law No. 29338, is institutionally insufficient to address this emergency and proposes a concrete doctrinal path oriented towards an ecocentric constitutional reform.