How the Rights of Nature Movement Is Reshaping Law and Culture
Dana Zartner, professor of International Studies and Law at the University of San Francisco, comments on how law and culture are being reshaped by the Rights of Nature in an emerging global movement to grant the natural world legal personhood, driven by Indigenous worldviews and a growing call for environmental justice. She cites various well-known Rights of Nature cases including the process of conflict, negotiation, and reconciliation between the Māori iwi and the Crown of Aotearoa (New Zealand) to enact laws that recognize the rights of Taranaki Māunga, the Te Urewera Forest, and the Whanganui River. In addition to historic cases, she mentions the recent Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) passed by the citizens of Toledo, Ohio, United States in February of 2019 that was unfortunately struck down by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in February of 2020. Dana states that although this result was disappointing, “it provides key lessons for advocates, including the necessity of crafting laws that fit within the context and culture in which they will ultimately apply.” Although measures of “success” vary based on local understandings of Rights of Nature frameworks, Dana notes a similarity in the language used globally, specifically the phrase, or rephrasing, of “Nature’s right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.” Dana argues that a two-pronged advocacy strategy must be developed to integrate this concept into contemporary norms. First, cultural perceptions and worldviews require a shift to view human beings and natural entities as equally valued parts of an interconnected whole, and second, existing laws must be reinterpreted and new laws created that support the concepts of Rights of Nature while working to implement sustainable systemic changes.
