Today’s presentation will be a Hybrid meeting with online and in-person options.
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“Environmental Personhood: Should Rivers Have Rights?”
Presented by Moses Klein
The concept of environmental personhood was first proposed in 1972 by the U.S. lawyer Christopher Stone, but not widely taken seriously at the time. In recent years there has been a move in several countries to grant legal rights ecosystems, especially rivers. Ecosystems with legal standing can be represented in court, and can sue to stop pollution.
· In 2017 New Zealand granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River, as part of a settlement with Maori people whose culture recognizes responsibilities of people toward natural features. A committee has been designed as the river’s legal administrator.
· The Yarra in Australia, the Ganges and Yamuna in India, and the Atrato in Colombia have been the subject of similar moves.
· Ecuador’s constitution declares that nature has a right to “the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes”. Bangladesh has granted all of its rivers the same legal status as humans.
· In Canada, the municipality of Minganie and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit have both passed resolutions asserting legal personhood for the Magpie River.
1. What are the implications of legal rights for rivers or other ecosystems?
2. Do we value the preservation of the environment for its own sake, or for its utility to people?
3. Would you favour Canada adopting the Ecuadorean model in regard to the rights of ecosystems?
4. How might the rights of an ecological feature conflict with the rights of humans?
5. Some have argued that the notion of environmental
6. Can you explain why most of the trend toward environmental personhood has been in regard to rivers, and not other ecological features?
Further reading:
Should Rivers Have RIghts? [Yale E360 magazine]
Should Rivers Have Same Legal Rights as Humans? [National Public Radio]
Should RIvers Have the Same Rights as People? [The Guardian]
This Canadian River is Now Legally a Person
Universal Declaration on the RIghts of Rivers
Should a river be a legal person? [SBS The Feed YouTube channel]