Rights of Nature

Rights of Nature

The Rights of Nature movement (RoN) gives legal recognition to natural entities and their rights. The movement is garnering successes worldwide and represents a significant shift in mindsets: shifting from a view of nature as a resource that exists for human exploitation, to defining nature as a living being with integral rights of its own.

Legal Personhood

Legal personhood began with the 1819 U.S. Supreme Court case Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, recognising corporations' rights and liabilities. In recent years, this concept is being transformed and expanded to apply to natural entities, starting in 2008 when Ecuador granted legal rights to nature in its constitution and granting ecosystems the right to exist and flourish.

Legal personhood is now being used to protect natural entities within legal frameworks worldwide, formalising duties and liabilities similar to those of a person.

There are relatively few examples of legal personhood, yet some notable examples include:

2016—Atrato River, Colombia: The Constitutional Court of Colombia recognised the Atrato River basin as a legal entity with rights to protection, conservation, maintenance, and restoration.

2017—Ganges and Yamuna Rivers, India: These rivers were declared legal persons by the Uttarakhand High Court, acknowledging their sacred status and environmental significance.

2017—Whanganui River, New Zealand (2017): The Whanganui River, known as Te Awa Tupua, was granted legal personhood, recognized as an indivisible, living whole with rights and duties. In 2017, New Zealand granted Te Awa Tupua (Te Reo)—the Whanganui River in Taranaki on the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand— legal personhood. For over 140 years, the local Māori iwi (tribe) of Te Awa Tupua fought to have their river recognised as an ancestor. In 2017 the New Zealand government awarded Te Awa Tupua “all the rights, duties, and liabilities of a legal person”. Te Awa Tupua is now legally acknowledged as “an indivisible and living whole from the mountains to the sea, incorporating the Whanganui River and all of its physical and metaphysical elements.” The recognition of Te Awa Tupua as a legal person represents a shift in the legal landscape, emphasising the importance of protecting natural entities and acknowledging their intrinsic value.

Ecocide

Ecocide defines reckless destruction of habitats and biodiversity as a criminal act. Earth lawyer Polly Higgins† formally defined ecocide as “the extensive loss or damage or destruction of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished.”

There is an active campaign to include Ecocide Law in the Rome Statute. If adopted, the International Criminal Court (ICC) would gain the ability to prosecute ecocide under universal jurisdiction. This would elevate ecocide to the same level as the four crimes against peace: Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes of Aggression.