Edinburgh Branch Support for Autumn 2024 Conference Motion 'Peace with Nature in a Written Constitution for Scotland'.

The draft Policy Motion on a 'peace with nature' constitution has been available in the Members' Forum since July 2023. It was discussed at a Policy Week session (recording available here), where Astri of the Policy Committee advised that branch support would help ensure that it is prioritised for debate at the Autumn 2024 Conference - hence this Branch Motion.

The Policy Motion seeks to amend policy (PRD 10.1.2) that calls for a written Scottish Constitution, by asking Greens to make the case for three linked ideas:

1. that principles of ecological sustainability exist at a higher level than human laws, and are binding in a different and inescapable way;

2. that conflict between those principles and human laws leads to danger for nature and people, so where it exists human laws must be corrected; and

3. that effective, accessible and fair ways are needed to identify and amend or strike down laws that violate safe Earth system or 'planetary' boundaries.

The Policy Motion calls for these ideas to be articulated by declaring peace with nature within the Scottish Constitution, and for them to be put into effect by establishing a specialised constitutional court to hear and resolve public appeals against laws and practices that may violate Earth system boundaries.

The ultimate goal is to reverse the subordinate position of nature in recent centuries, and to enable the re-balancing of all laws and practices accordingly, against a vision of founding a viable successor culture by 2085. A key starting point is the influential 'Peace with Nature' policy of the Government of Costa Rica since 2007 (as described on the Members' Forum), which is why this particular phrase is used here.