The Rights of Nature and Environmental Law: A Developing Relationship
Year: 2025
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: A growing number of countries around the world now recognize some types of legal rights for nature. Some of these laws have resulted in positive outcomes for the environment, and others have sparked backlash, but the full impact of these laws has yet to become apparent. This chapter raises various questions on whether rights of nature laws have been, can be, or will be effective. Are rights of nature better suited to some types of legal systems than others? Are rights of nature compatible with ‘Western’ ontologies? Are rights of nature necessarily ecocentric, or are anthropocentric rights of nature laws possible or even desirable? Can or should nature have duties? How can the legal system deal with different time scales of humans and non-human nature? How useful is international comparison, and how viable is legal transplantation? And what is the relationship between rights of nature and traditional environmental law?
Source: Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
Author: Yaffa Epstein
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4407577017