Property, by virtue of its constitutional design as both an institutional guarantee and an individual guarantee of vested rights, possesses a particular capacity to shape and guide processes of societal transformation. In light of the ecological challenges of the Anthropocene-most notably biodiversity loss, climate change, and environmental pollution-property law is increasingly under pressure to adapt. Much like during the upheavals of the bourgeois revolutions and the emergence of socially obligated property, it now faces the task of aligning its normative structure with the requirements of ecological sustainability and effective environmental protection.
This study develops legal concepts aimed at strengthening environmental and nature protection through an ecological recalibration of the constitutional guarantee of property under Article 14 of the Basic Law. Based on a doctrinal constitutional analysis, three complementary forms of ecological property are identified: non-property (1), which protects nature in its reserve and potentiality functions; the recognition of nature as a legal subject (2), which enhances its capacity for enforcement and defense; and ecologically obligated property (3), which emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between humans and nature, as well as the dependence of human freedom on an intact environment.
These approaches are systematically developed within a constitutional-theoretical and doctrinal framework. Finally, the study offers policy recommendations for shaping ecological property as a legal framework for responsibly addressing conflicts at the intersection of property and nature.