Literature Review

In this article, O'Donnell, Poelina, Pelizzon, and Clark acknowledge and explore the essential role of Indigenous ideologies in shaping the Rights of Nature. While recognition of Rights of Nature paradigms has increased in recent years, many trailblazing cases have been hindered by limited enforcement. The authors argue that analyzing Indigenous influences upon ecological jurisprudence will enhance the implementation of Rights of Nature in a global context. They begin by describing the historical origins of ecocentric law, noting the development of its two distinct forms: ‘existence rights’ and ‘legal personality’. To analyze the efficacy of current policy responses, the authors compare five recent cases of rivers and lakes in different countries that have received legal rights, including the Whanganui River in New Zealand and Lake Erie in the United States. They observe that cases with higher Indigenous engagement with colonial legal institutions result in more strategic, sustainable transformations that successfully reconcile the divide between Nature and culture. Finally, the authors discuss the case of the Mardoowarra/Martuwara/Fitzroy River in Australia, where Traditional Owners who act as legal guardians for the River play an active role in protecting the River’s right to life.

This article investigates the relationship between legal personality for nature and indigenous philosophies by comparing two cases: the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 and the 2014 Te Urewera Act of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Through these case studies, the article considers the nature of indigenous relations with the concept of rights of nature, arguing that this relation is primarily strategic, not genealogical. The article engages with the concept of legal personality and shows that it is not a direct translation of indigenous conceptions, but rather a potential straitjacket for indigenous emancipatory politics. The radical character of indigenous ontologies is not fully reflected in the concept of legal personality. Furthermore, the way in which rights are granted to the natural environment is an important part of the effect such rights might have on indigenous communities. Despite some affinities between rights of the environment and indigenous philosophies, overstating the connection might constrain the radical political and legal implications of indigenous thought.

Environment law can be looked upon from two perspectives- anthropocentric and ecocentric, The former is essentially human-centric, while the latter is nature-centric. The former gives prime importance to mankind, while the latter gives equal importance to all the components of nature. It is this difference in view, that this article aims to study.

Just one month after the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States, New Zealand passed legislation granting personhood to the Whanganui River, settling over a century of negotiations between the Maori people and New Zealand government. McDermond discusses the history of attempting to attain standing for natural resources, and Justice Douglas’ proposal of creating standing for environmental objects with the reasoning that ships or corporations are inanimate objects with standing that could be analogous to rivers, trees, or land. McDermond also focuses on the sacred relationship between Native Americans and land, specifically that they have always recognized that land has intrinsic value. When it comes to legally constructed personhood, standing is given to human persons and artificial persons like corporations. The American legal system has struggled with protecting land rights, and can look to New Zealand, which protects the Whanganui River as an “indivisible and living whole” with all the “rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person,” as a guide. Finally, McDermond analyzes the feasibility of enacting similar legislation in the United States, concluding that it is possible but requires great legislative specificity to avoid any ambiguity faced by courts in other countries with similar goals.

Rowe examines whether the Wisconsin Menominee Tribe could establish personhood for the Menominee River using New Zealand’s Whanganui River as a model. The agreement establishing legal personhood for the Whanganui River intends to reflect that indigenous peoples view the river as a living entity rather than property capable of being owned, enabling the river to have legal standing in its own right. The Menominee River is currently under threat from the construction of the Back Forty Mine, an open-pit-sulfide mine which risks contamination of watersheds and drinking water in the area. Because the Menominee signed multiple treaties with the U.S. government terminating their status as a federal tribe, it is increasingly difficult for them to protest multiple documents, ultimately meaning that the U.S. government has significantly more power than the tribe as a group. Rowe concludes that even if the Menominee received significant grassroots social and political support to establish rights for their river, similar to what occurred in New Zealand, protecting the river from the construction of the mine would be an arduous legal battle. The Menominee’s best chance at fighting the mine would be establishing guardianship rights to preserve the river, which would be an acknowledgement of past harms committed by treaty agreements between the tribe and the U.S. government.

Kowalski first discusses how indigenous approaches to law and nature differ from more modern “Western” approaches that view nature as property. For example, Australian indigenous groups would determine how certain ecosystems operate, then regulate human activities based on what would complement those processes, rather than implementing rules or statutes. Additionally, indigenous groups historically did not separate humanity from nature as most modern societies do, leading to the exploitation of natural resources. John Locke’s theories on property also led to the colonization of indigenous lands, where territory was seized from indigenous groups because it was believed they were not utilizing the land to its fullest economic capacity. Kowalski further discusses the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the relationship between protecting indigenous rights and the management of land and resources. Currently, a majority of activism for indigenous rights and environmental protection comes from grassroots efforts against corporate or governmental intervention. Kowalski concludes that a critical aspect of environmental protection is the installation of indigenous concepts of environmentalism into law by granting rights and personhood to natural entities, using the Ecuadorian constitution and the personhood of New Zealand’s Whanganui River as models.

The Inter-American Court will likely be the first regional human rights tribunal to develop an advisory opinion on the climate emergency, prompting normative effects for climate justice beyond the legal realm.

Environmental human rights defenders face danger and sometimes even death for their tireless work protecting the environment.

The United States, the European Union, and Germany have recently adopted or proposed new rules requiring enhanced due diligence in supply chains, targeting human rights and environmental issues. This alert examines key differences among the regimes and highlights compliance considerations.

As the global mass movement to address the urgent need to co-design and co-build a new eco-social world grows, so does the engagement of social workers globally. The profession has a long history of social action and advocacy, with the context of community and systems engagement reflective of the diversity of our profession together in our communities. The growing crisis of climate change, pandemics, environmental destruction, conflict and global inequality (including lack of social protection systems) diminish human and environmental rights that find social workers with a critical role in this global movement to address these inequities.

Environmental Human Rights defenders, including Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, women and youth, continue to shape global discussions and actions to address the climate and biodiversity crisis.

The world is facing a plastics crisis. Plastic pollution is found all around the globe. Plastics are negatively affecting people and the environment at each stage of their lifecycle – extraction of fossil fuel, production, manufacturing, use, recycling, and disposal. The impacts are felt in a wide range of areas, including on biodiversity, climate change, human health and human rights. This page focuses on the impacts of plastics and the chemicals they contain on human health.