Literature Review

Book Summary: This book increases the visibility, clarity and understanding of ecological law. Ecological law is emerging as a field of law founded on systems thinking and the need to integrate ecological limits, such as planetary boundaries, into law. Presenting new thinking in the field, this book focuses on problem areas of contemporary law including environmental law, property law, trusts, legal theory and First Nations law and explains how ecological law provides solutions. Written by ecological law experts, it does this by 1) providing an overview of shortcomings of environmental law and other areas of contemporary law, 2) presenting specific examples of these shortcomings, 3) explaining what ecological law is and how it provides solutions to the shortcomings of contemporary law, and 4) showing how society can overcome some key challenges in the transition to ecological law. Drawing on a diverse range of case study examples including Indigenous law, ecological restoration and mining, this volume will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers of environmental and ecological law and governance, political science, environmental ethics and ecological and degrowth economics.

This chapter describes the comparative legal implications of Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence by acknowledging the country which the paper is written and in which it is being read. It reminds the reader that the concept of country is a varied and multifaceted one. The chapter focuses on Indigenous worldviews and legal perspectives, given the specific place that they are awarded within the emerging discourse of Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence. Indigenous peoples and their worldviews have occupied a special position within the emerging discourse of Earth Jurisprudence from the very beginning. The relevance of Indigenous worldviews to the project of an Ecological Jurisprudence, both in a practical as well as a theoretical sense is certainly as uncontroversial. Advocates of Earth Jurisprudence suggest and promote an important dialogue with and among all cultures in regard to the way in which collective species, engage with the environment, with particular emphasis on a dialogue involving Indigenous voices.

This chapter argues that emerging rights of nature theory, legal instruments and jurisprudence express qualities of Earth system law (ESL) and, reciprocally, that nature rights can illuminate critical questions about the values and normative orientations of ESL. It provides a brief overview of the rights of nature doctrine and the emergence of nature rights law around the world. The chapter explores three normative themes that are pivotal to emerging conceptions of ESL: promoting an eco-centric approach; embracing complexity, broadly construed; and adopting a planetary perspective. It sketches out a range of ways in which the rights of nature both express these objectives and point the way towards sustainable, adapted law for the Anthropocene. It argues that a further task in developing ESL should be to interrogate the concept of the Anthropocene, and that the rights of nature doctrine can facilitate this critical engagement by its example of normative positioning around this concept.

Ratified in 2019, the Nibi Declaration of Treaty #3 voices the relationship with water (Nibi) and jurisdictional responsibility that all Anishinaabe citizens have within the Treaty #3 territory. It affirms the responsibilities and relationships that others living within the territory should have with the water and ensures that the spirit of Nibi is central to decision-making and water governance. This article details the process of developing The Declaration, in accordance with the Treaty #3 lawmaking process and, which was driven by women, in ceremony, with the help of Gitiizii m-inaanik, and with the input of The Nation as a whole. This process embodies nationhood, sovereignty, and Anishinaabe jurisdiction as it relates to the environment and water, in accordance with the Manito Aki Inakonigaawin (Mother Earth law). Every person has a relationship with water. The process of nurturing that relationship through the teachings exemplified in the implementation of The Declaration will provide clarity on the responsibilities and partnerships that must be developed to protect the water for future generations.

This paper looks at future conservation goals for the ocean and whether these are enough to provide effective change.

In February 2021 a draft Declaration of the Rights of the Moon was posted on the website of the Australian Earth Law Alliance (AELA). The Declaration affirms that the Moon “is a sovereign natural entity in its own right” possessing “fundamental rights, which arise from its existence in the universe” (Australian Earth Law Alliance, 2021). The conversations that resulted in the Declaration included voices from law, ethics, archaeology, economics and ecology. It has been a consciously inclusive, interdisciplinary conversation. The Declaration is deliberately framed as a “draft” intended to initiate a global discussion. In this paper I will contribute a religious voice to the discussion, a Christian voice. I will outline the way recent themes in Christian theology resonate with the discussion around the Declaration.

Through a lens of legal pluralism, this article examines the histories, ontologies and discourses that have shaped two contrasting approaches to human-Earth relations in debates and legal frameworks for sustainable development. Anthropocentric discourses of nature as service-provider underpin the dominant approaches within ecology and economics. Ecocentric discourses of Nature as subject are reflected in Rights of Nature movements, particularly in the Americas, and at an international level, in the United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme. Drawing particularly on examples from forest governance in global and national contexts, this article analyses the ways in which international organisations and states have instrumentalised and embedded these discourses in law and policy and reflects on the challenges and possibilities for pluricultural legal orders, Rights of Nature and sustainable development. Moving away from conventional understandings of rights and entitlement to natural resources, the article argues for a deep legal pluralism that both decentres anthropocentric thinking on the environment and decentres the state in the development of Earth law. This places responsibility for the environment and the equitable sharing of power at the heart of legal frameworks on human-Earth relations and recognises the diversity of ontologies that shape these relationships in law and practice.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the environmental rights of citizens and guarantees of their protection. To achieve the results of the study a systematic approach and various scientific methods were applied, in particular: dialectical, formal-logical, comparative-legal. As a result of the conducted research, the interrelation between international environmental law and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning environmental rights was considered. The study analyzed the development of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and concluded that the European Convention on Human Rights lacks a clear recognition of the right to a healthy environment. The importance of the environment for the realization of human rights has been proven to be widely recognized in international law. The assumption that a human right to a healthy environment can arise in international law raises a number of theoretical and practical problems for human rights, with such problems arising both within and outside the human rights debate. The quality of the natural environment has been found to affect the ability of governments to uphold numerous statutory human rights. The research concludes that human rights law can make a positive contribution to environmental protection, but the precise nature of the relationship between the environment and human rights requires a more critical and deeper analysis of environmental rights issues. The article analyzes the thesis regarding the guarantee of human rights to a safe environment.

By offering a solution to the environmental challenges of our day, Earth law may be the next great rights-based movement. The belief that non-human nature – including the species and ecosystems that comprise our world – has inherent rights has galvanized an international movement. Building on the breakthrough of three rivers securing rights recognition, Earth Law Center works on the front line by partnering with local communities to secure rights for rivers and wider ecosystems. Empowering nature also empowers communities because when advocates see themselves as rights defenders, the stakes are raised, and the relationships between people and the environment are transformed. Based on this background, this article explores the origins of Earth law, the importance of rivers, how Earth law can strengthen river protections and current river initiatives, and it also details how to get involved.

Humanity’s relationship with the Ocean needs to be transformed to effectively address the multitude of governance crises facing the Ocean, including overfishing, climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction. Earth law, including Rights of Nature, provides a pathway to center humanity as a part of Nature and transform our relationship from one of dominion and separateness towards holism and mutual enhancement. Within the Earth law framework, an Ocean-centered approach views humanity as interconnected with the Ocean, recognizes societies’ collective duty and reciprocal responsibility to protect and conserve the Ocean, and puts aside short-term gain to respect and protect future generations of all life and the Ocean’s capacity to regenerate and sustain natural cycles. This Essay presents Ocean-centered governance as an approach to help achieve the 10 challenges for collective impact put forward as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and therefore living in a harmonious relationship with the Ocean.