Constitutional Interpretation through Veto Power in Timor-Leste’s Environmental Regulation as Internalization of Green Constitutionalism

The absence of an explicit recognition of a green constitution in the Constitution of Timor-Leste renders the presidential veto a crucial and urgent constitutional mechanism of last resort to prevent the enactment of environmental regulations that disregard ecological justice and global human rights mandates. This research aims to formulate and integrate green constitutionalism as a framework for constitutional interpretation of the President of Timor-Leste’s veto power, through a comparative analysis with Indonesia, in order to reaffirm the veto as a normatively binding corrective instrument for safeguarding ecological justice. This research adopts a normative legal method, employing a statutory approach to constitutional and environmental legislation in Timor-Leste and Indonesia, complemented by a comparative study with Indonesia, which has elevated environmental protection to a constitutional norm through the internalization of green constitution principles in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. The research shows that Indonesia has developed a normative green constitution framework in which environmental protection is implicitly internalized and reflected in the 1945 Constitution and Law Number 32 of 2009, thereby providing a comparative model and a basis for recommending the strengthening of the constitutionalization of environmental rights in the exercise of the President of Timor-Leste’s veto power over environmental regulations.