The César Manrique Foundation (FCM) will host the conference entitled Ecological Justice and the Rights of Nature: Law 19/2022, of September 30, recognizing the legal personality of the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin, given by Teresa Vicente Giménez, professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Murcia and European winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, considered the Nobel Prize for the Environment, and which was awarded to her for conceiving, promoting and achieving the legal personality of the Mar Menor.
The event will take place in the José Saramago room (La Plazuela, Arrecife) and will be broadcast live through the FCM website and YouTube channel.
Teresa Vicente will explain how, in October 2019, the imminent collapse of the Mar Menor —the largest coastal saltwater lagoon in Europe— caused an unprecedented social movement in our country. The frustration of citizens at the agony of an ecosystem of great ecological and emotional value produced in people an ethical leap and an expansion of consciousness that led to the demand for a new protection paradigm: Ecological justice and rights for the lagoon and its basin.
The same rights were requested for the Mar Menor as those of the people and corporations that exploit the riches of this saltwater lagoon as if it were only an object for unlimited economic benefit.
Through a Popular Legislative Initiative —which was taken into consideration by both the Congress of Deputies and the Senate—, Law 19/2022, of September 13, that social movement managed to grant legal personality to the Mar Menor, thus turning it into the first ecosystem in Europe to hold its own rights. Consequently, the anthropocentric error of considering human beings independent and superior to Nature was left behind, and it was recognized that Nature and human beings are part of the same reality.
Currently, the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin is a new citizen that can be defended by anyone and as of May 29, 2025, it has been endowed with a guardianship. The future of the Mar Menor is not determined, it is open to a new development model within the limits of our ecosystem, in peace with Nature and Humanity. This milestone, which has been possible thanks to a conscious, informed and knowledgeable social movement, has aroused international recognition for having turned a utopia into a reality and remains as a legacy for future generations.
Teresa Vicente's intervention is included within the reflection space "Borders and directions of progress" of the FCM. A forum aimed at reviewing the idea of progress contemplated from multidisciplinary perspectives, and in which the presence of, among others, Ramón Margalef, José Manuel Naredo, Federico Aguilera Klink, Fernando Savater, Jorge Riechmann, Rafael Argullol, Ulrich Beck, Marc Augé, Susan George, Daniel Innerarity, Joaquín Estefanía, Gloria Poyatos, Marta del Amo, Íñigo Losada, Remedios Zafra or, recently, Óscar Carpintero.
María Teresa Vicente Giménez is a tenured professor of Philosophy of Law and director of the Chair of Human Rights and Rights of Nature at the University of Murcia. After practicing law between 1987 and 1994, her academic research and publications have focused on ecological justice, social rights, legal feminism and the rights of children. She received the Medal of Honor for Volunteering from the Council of Europe in 2023 and, a year later, was the winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
She is the author of several publications, including titles such as Justice and environmental law: for a model of ecological justice (1995), The enforceability of social rights, (2006) or her latest book Ecological justice and rights of nature (2023). Likewise, she is the editor of Ecological justice in the Anthropocene era (2016) and coordinator of The rights of children, everyone's responsibility (2007).