RIGHTS OF NATURE: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Objectives: Rights of Nature (RoN), the idea that natural entities, such as forests, rivers and mountains, should be endowed with rights like humans, emerged in 1972 in the United States of America (USA) through a work by Christopher Stone, a Professor of Law. This article analyses the theoretical and philosophical foundations of RoN, the pattern of its adoption, and the success and failure in its practice. Method/Data Sources: The documents on RoN of the countries that have adopted RoN are the main sources of information/data. Other sources include publications by researchers on RoN, reports by environmental organisations such as Global Alliance for RoN, Eco Jurisdiction Monitor, and Earth Law Center, and recent print/electronic media reports on RoN. Theoretical Framework: In order to provide a contextual framework, the concept of nature is discussed. The philosophical basis of RoN is the indigenous people’s perspective of the sacredness of natural entities and their practice of living in harmony with nature. The concepts of legal personality and legal rights provide the theoretical background for RoN. The emergence of RoN is consequent on the increasing acceptance of ecocentrism, a philosophy of the intrinsic value of nature as a more effective environmental management approach compared to the dominant anthropocentrism which is centred around the dominance of humans over nature. Results and Discussion: Four patterns in the endowment of RoN are identifiable and analysed. These are whole country, parts of a country, whole natural entities, and parts of natural entities application. It is only in Ecuador, Bolivia, Uganda and Panama that RoN applies to all parts of the country. United States is a typical example of where RoN applies to only areal units within a country. There are many more cases of where RoN applies to units of a physical entity than to the entire entity such as rivers. Constitutional review, laws and court decisions have been the channels of introducing RoN. In terms of the spatial distribution, South America is the epicentre. Ecuador is a typical example of where the RoN Movement has been largely successful while USA is a good example of where it has not. As the experience of Ecuador has shown, the success of RoN requires an effective mobilization of the citizenry.