Legal status of nature

Question 1

Struggle for legal status of nature

Answer 1

The struggles for the legal status of nature and the future →
In our moral frameworks - our legal status given to humans
Radically changing - more and more natural elements have legal status - countries where legal status has been given to natural elements - see ppt.
NZ - Whanganul river! Very interesting. A lawyer could defend this.
Ecuador - mother earth has rights - 14 years.
Colombia - amazon river has rights.

Question 2

Christopher D Stone / US / Defending the rights of nature

Answer 2

• Rights of nature - should trees have standing? Christopher D. Stone. He went to court and pretended that he was protecting the rights of the trees - to prevent Disney’s expansion - supported by Sierra club - he began explaining jurisprudence for people defending nature. - How do you represent nature in court - uses in a very pragmatic way - an existing legal framework. Already have a legal rep for people who cannot speak - people who cannot communicate. The lawyer acts as the guardian/stewards of the person - guardianship - voices interests - why don’t we use this model - for nature that does not speak - but has interests - has an interest in living adn growing - natural objects are capable of tellikng us what they wish - a tree taht suffers from drought will express it’s problems - that the drought is destroying it’s leaves/structure - entire legal framework - as a way of representing nature in court - Followers continued that fight - does it work for rivers/natural elements where it’s harder to work it out. How do we understand the interests of nature? What are those interests?
• Common law - it’s easier to incorporate new regimes - the practise that brings the evolution of the law - in Europe - need to fight for the text -

Question 3

Eco-cide

Answer 3

• Legal recognition of ecocides - the destruction of nature itself - a way of incorporating nature in our judicial systems - campaign to bring eco-cide in our legal frameworks - recognising that our environment could be a victim - began with the vietnam war - when agent orange was used. - increase visibility of the troops - followed eco-system at the time - the invention of ecocide
  More broadly - trying to recognsie - kinds of crime that extend to environmental elements
  Crime of eco-cide help us to condemn that behaviour - from the point of view of criminal law - should be stronger in terms of sentencing - recognition of environmental crimes - eradicating ecocide - show what is at stake
  The climate trials - Klimaatzaak - l’affaire climat - accused the gov of inaction in regards to climate change - not doing enough in mitigation of climate change
  Netherlands was condemned by the courts - but very few consequences
  Bring nature in legal debates - and judicial systems
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