Past and future the environment as a fundamental right

This article examines the historical origins and evolution of the right to live in a pollution free environment, recognized in the Chilean Constitution, and current trends of comparative law in regulation and recognition. The dilemma of its ambivalent nature of individual and social rights arises, inserting his analysis on what may be called the environmental constitutionalism, their impact on the public and administrative law, and the importance of conceiving it more broadly as a constitutional duty to protect nature which requires all person without distinction.