Cormac Cullinan: If Nature Had Rights

Blanca Chancosa, an Ecuadorian indigenous leader and judge on the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature, looks into part of the world's largest iron ore mine, owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale.

In this provocative essay, published in the January/February 2008 issue of Orion magazine (online here), South African environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan imagines what nature could gain and what humans could “lose” if nature were given legal protection. Essay translation: Jiří Zemánek. Cormac Cullinan is the author of Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice (Green Books, Cambridge…

Cormac Cullinan and the Nature Rights Movement

South African environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan.

Cormac Cullinan is a director of South Africa’s oldest environmental law firm, Cullinan & Associates Inc, and founder of EnAct International, a London-based environmental law and policy consultancy. He has litigated, negotiated and advised clients ranging from local businesses to national governments and international organisations; he has drafted legislation, policies and strategies…