“A new wave of change is flowing through the zeitgeist, bringing with it a desire for action, for fundamental change, and for humanity to be reintegrated into the community of Earth.” Cormac Cullinan This is an abbreviated text of a lecture on the rights of nature at the eighth seminar of the Pilgrim Anima Animalia and the Rights of Nature Association’s Traveling University of Nature in Horní Maršov, given on August 10, 2023. The steeply rising crisis…
Tag: Rights of nature
Cormac Cullinan: If Nature Had Rights
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…
David R. Boyd: A river becomes a legal entity
This excerpt from Canadian lawyer and activist David R. Boyd's book The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution that Could Save the World (ECW Press, Toronto 2017, pp. 131-143 / translated and edited by Jiří Zemánek) – in which the author describes the emergence of the contemporary nature rights movement – depicts the deep relationship of the Maori people to the Whanganui River and their dispute with the British…
David R. Boyd: Te Urewera, the ecosystem formerly known as a national park
David R. Boyd is a Canadian lawyer, activist, and diplomat who is the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment. In his influential book The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution that Could Save the World (ECW Press, Toronto 2017), a “real-life legal thriller” (D.…
Stephan Harding: Land Rights
Stephan Harding is the coordinator of the MSc in Holistic Sciences at Schumacher College in Devon, UK. He is the author of Animate Earth: Animated Gaia: Science, Intuition and Gaia (2006). This article by the author was published in The Guardian (3 April 2007). Translation: Jiří Zemánek. The only way to prevent the destruction of our planet is to give it legal rights. Stephan Harding Today…
The Rights of Nature, Earth Democracy, and the Future of Environmental Governance
Dr Michelle Maloney is a leading Australian lawyer focused on creating systemic change to move industrial societies towards an earth-centred culture and governance. She studied law at the Australian National University and Griffith University, is the co-founder and national coordinator of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) and a senior fellow at the Centre…
Cormac Cullinan and the Nature Rights Movement
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…
Thomas Berry: The Origin, Distinction, and Role of Rights
“When I use the term ‘rights’, I mean the freedom of people to fulfill their destiny, their responsibility, and their basic nature, and by analogy, that other natural entities also have the right to fulfill their role within the Earth community.” Thomas Berry Cultural historian, philosopher, cosmologist, and Earth advocate Thomas Berry is generally considered the father of the current burgeoning movement for…
Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth
“It is still time for our laws to recognize the right of rivers to flow, to prohibit actions that destabilize the Earth’s climate, and to establish respect for the inherent value of every living being. It is time to stop the rampant commodification of nature, just as it was once forbidden to buy and sell human beings.” Alberto Acosta, Ecuadorian economist and judge of the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature April 22…