Rights of Nature

I have long been interested in heterodox law-making - an interest initially spawned when I began following Indigenous peoples’ legal activism at the UN during their drafting of UNDRIP (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) in Geneva, Switzerland, in the mid-1990s. This interest was reinvigorated during my research on water insurgencies in Europe, where I interviewed many lawyers pushing the boundaries of liberal legal systems to include the concept of the commons.

I am currently involved in a book-length project on the rights of nature movement and its relation to Earth Law. Here, I follow recent rulings in Brazil, Spain, Canada, and elsewhere on the rights of waves, lagoons, and other acquatic beings. In essence, my question revolves around the limits of liberal law as it encounters the elementality of nature, asking how “nature” can be captured by law and what the promises and pitfalls of this capture are.

I have taught an undergraduate class on the topic, which resulted in a Rights of Nature Video we made together with filmmaker Franzina Braje.