{"title":"Exploring the rights of nature in freshwater and marine ecosystems","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.esg.2024.100224","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recognizing nature as a legal subject could be understood as an innovative way to transform environmental law towards an ethos of respect and care. The Rights of Nature (RoN) movement gained traction at a time when planet Earth is facing unprecedented ecological degradation. So far, little attention has been given as to how RoN is interpreted and conceptualised and what its implications are to freshwater and marine ecosystem governance. Moreover, important questions remain insufficiently answered, including, for instance, the question of who grants such rights and on the basis of which legal mechanisms, who legally represents nature, or how such rights are actually being implemented and possibly enforced. This article explores the different legal conceptualizations of RoN, focusing on freshwater and marine ecosystems which have received particular attention in recent years in both the academic discourse and in policy practice – yet remain under immense pressure. It also investigates which legal mechanisms are being used to recognize these rights – e.g. court cases, laws, ordinances– and what their legal implications have been so far, including the challenges which have to be addressed to ensure that this innovative approach indeed helps transform how societies perceive and govern freshwater and marine ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":33685,"journal":{"name":"Earth System Governance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589811624000247/pdfft?md5=a55a163d8e926655a4e1505e67b29f68&pid=1-s2.0-S2589811624000247-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Earth System Governance","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589811624000247","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Recognizing nature as a legal subject could be understood as an innovative way to transform environmental law towards an ethos of respect and care. The Rights of Nature (RoN) movement gained traction at a time when planet Earth is facing unprecedented ecological degradation. So far, little attention has been given as to how RoN is interpreted and conceptualised and what its implications are to freshwater and marine ecosystem governance. Moreover, important questions remain insufficiently answered, including, for instance, the question of who grants such rights and on the basis of which legal mechanisms, who legally represents nature, or how such rights are actually being implemented and possibly enforced. This article explores the different legal conceptualizations of RoN, focusing on freshwater and marine ecosystems which have received particular attention in recent years in both the academic discourse and in policy practice – yet remain under immense pressure. It also investigates which legal mechanisms are being used to recognize these rights – e.g. court cases, laws, ordinances– and what their legal implications have been so far, including the challenges which have to be addressed to ensure that this innovative approach indeed helps transform how societies perceive and govern freshwater and marine ecosystems.
承认自然是一个法律主体可以被理解为一种创新的方式,将环境法转变为一种尊重和关爱的精神。在地球面临前所未有的生态退化之际,自然权利 (RoN) 运动受到了广泛关注。迄今为止,人们对 RoN 如何解释和概念化及其对淡水和海洋生态系统管理的影响关注甚少。此外,一些重要问题仍未得到充分解答,例如,由谁赋予此类权利、基于何种法律机制、谁在法律上代表自然或此类权利如何得到实际实施和强制执行等问题。本文探讨了 RoN 的不同法律概念,重点是近年来在学术讨论和政策实践中受到特别关注的淡水和海洋生态系统,但它们仍然面临巨大压力。文章还调查了哪些法律机制被用于承认这些权利--如法院案例、法律、法令--以及它们迄今为止的法律影响,包括必须应对的挑战,以确保这种创新方法确实有助于改变社会对淡水和海洋生态系统的看法和管理方式。