ODOR POLLUTION AND LEGAL OMISSION: REGULATORY GAPS AND ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES IN PERU

Sota Champi L.; Villarreal García J.F. · Revista Catalana de Dret Ambiental (2026) · DOI: 10.17345/rcda4327

Resumen

This article examines the systematic exclusion of odor pollution within the Peruvian environmental legal framework as an expression of a technocratic and anthropocentric rationality. Despite the constitutional recognition of the right to a balanced environment, odors have been rendered legally invisible through an epistemic device that subordinates sensory and emotional dimensions to quantifiable parameters. Through a critical and interdisciplinary methodology, Peruvian regulatory indolence is contrasted with the jurisprudential standards of the European Court of Human Rights. The study focuses on the "odorous legal epistemicide" at the San Jerónimo Wastewater Treatment Plant (Cusco), where the infringement of the subjects' rights – systematized by local academia– is disavowed by the state bureaucracy itself. By combining normative analysis, philosophical-legal categories, and cases of prolonged odorous exposure, this research analyzes the regulatory neglect of the Peruvian administration. It is argued that this exclusion not only reflects regulatory anomie but also configures a structural lack of protection for rights by delegitimizing local knowledge and bodily experiences. Finally, the article analyzes the legal necessity for a normative reconfiguration that recognizes the olfactory dimension as a valid criterion for environmental impact.

Instituciones: Universidad Continental; Universidad Andina del Cusco