Performativity in the Atrato River rights of nature judgement orders

Abstract The Atrato River judgement is one of the groundbreaking decisions in rights of nature. A model for further legislation and case-law, the ruling advanced environmental guardianship, and envisaged democratic, pluralistic environmental management and restoration plans for degraded waterways. However, when taking stock of its scope for substantive action, most of the ruling provisions would amount for environmental ‘law-for-show’. Lack of funding provisions, complex institutional cooperation arrangements, excessive reliance on under-resourced governments, and exacerbated reporting are signs of gestural compliance of the judgement. Despite its implementation challenges, the judgement has excelled in law’s communicational function of bringing forward river degradation in an illegal mining context to frame community guardian action. Its real success, therefore, is rather to be measured on the achievements of the riverine communities’ political struggle as guardians, than on the limited substantive action within the Colombian Constitutional Court’s orders.