Rights of Nature Literature

In addition to ELC's work, a growing number of other advocates, activists, scholars, and researchers are publishing information about rights of nature. Some of that work is listed below, and we are always adding to the list! 

Featured Literature:  

• Guidance for writers sharing Earth Law through blogging and social media - Similarities between good teaching and good public education writing by Helen Louise George.

• Learn how to better express your ideas about Earth Law and connect with audiences - A Guide for Earth Law Communication by Helen Louise George.

• Engaging and informative compilation of the latest thinking around Earth Law and rights of nature - thanks to the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Can Nature Have Rights? Legal and Political Insights, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2017, no. 6. Edited by Anna Leah Tabios Hillebrecht and María Valeria Berros.

LAWS – INTERNATIONAL

• Ecuador Constitution, Rights of Nature Provisions (especially Articles 71-73)

• Bolivia, Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, Law 071 (2010)

• Bolivia, Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well (Law 300) (2012)

• Bolivia Constitution, Articles 33-34

• Whanganui River Agreement, New Zealand: Tutohu Whakatupua (Aug. 31, 2012), recognizing the independent legal standing of the river (Treaty Agreement)

LAWS – LOCAL 

• Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin adopts Rights of Nature into constitution, Resolution Pg. 9 and 10.

• Santa Monica Sustainability Bill of Rights Ordinance (April 2013) (ELC co-drafted)

• City of Pittsburgh, Code of Ordinances, Title 6, Art. 1, Ch. 618, "Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Drilling Ordinance" (Nov. 2010) (includes model rights of nature language)

• Other local laws: see Earth Community Map

Case Law

• Wheeler et al. v. Director de la Procuraduria General del Estado en Loja (Corte Provincial de Justicia de Loja, March 31, 2011), recognizing the rights of the Vilcabamba River to flow

• Vilcabamba River Decision (Wheeler et al.), original in Spanish

• T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India & Others (In the Supreme Court of India) (February 13, 2012)

INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

• Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth (Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 2010)

• IUCN, Incorporation of the Rights of Nature as the Organizational Focal Point in IUCN's Decisionmaking, Resolution WCC-2012-Res-100 (Sept. 2012, Jeju, Korea)

• The Earth Charter

• United Nations, The Future We Want (Rio de Janeiro, June 2012), citing nature's rights in para. 39

• Final Declaration of the People's Summit (Rio de Janeiro, June 2012), calling for U.N. adoption of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

• United Nations, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 22 December 2015: Harmony with Nature (A/RES/70/208, 17 Feb. 2016) (calling for an expert report on Earth Jurisprudence)

• World Charter for Nature and The International Convention on Biodiversity, United Nations 1992 (UN resolution here)

JOURNAL ARTICLES and essays

• As nature evolves, so too does MPA management need to evolve, Michelle Bender, Earth Law Center, Taylor & Francis, July 20, 2018 (free with university affiliation).

• Rights of Nature: Rivers That Can Stand in Court, Lidia Cano Pecharroman, Earth Institute, Columbia University, Feb 14, 2018.

• Can Nature Have Rights? Legal and Political Insights, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2017, no. 6. Edited by Anna Leah Tabios Hillebrecht and María Valeria Berros.

• Craig Kauffman and Pamela Martin, "Testing Ecuador’s Rights of Nature: Why Some Lawsuits Succeed and Others Fail" (Paper Presented at the International Studies Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, March 18, 2016)

• Michelle Maloney, “Finally Being Heard: The Great Barrier Reef and the International Rights of Nature Tribunal," Griffith J. of Law and Human Dignity (2015)

• Adam Sowards, "Should Nature Have Standing to Sue?" High Country News (Jan. 19, 2015)

• Michael M'Gonigle and Louise Takeda, "The Liberal Limits of Environmental Law: A Green Legal Critique," Pace Environmental Law Review (July 2013)

• Judith Koons, “At the Tipping Point: Defining an Earth Jurisprudence for Social and Ecological Justice,” 58 Loyola. L. Rev. 349 (2012)

• Gus Speth, "Towards a New Economy and a New Politics," Solutions (May 2010)

• Donella Meadows, "Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System" (1999)

• Thomas Berry, "The Meadow across the Creek" (Dec. 1993)

• Cormac Cullinan, "If Nature Had Rights," Orion Magazine (Jan./Feb. 2008)

• Laurence Tribe, “Ways Not to Think about Plastic Trees: New Foundations for Environmental Law,” 83 Yale Law Journal 1315 (June 1974)

• Christopher Stone, “Should Trees Have Standing? Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects,” 45 So. Cal. L. Rev. 450 (1972)

REPORTS

• United Nations, Harmony with Nature Website; includes U.N. reports discussing the rights of nature

• Rights of Nature Tribunals, complete website collection of information and videos of past rights of nature tribunals

• California Initiative to Define "Ocean Health", Workshop Report (2015)

• Cormac Cullinan, "A Tribunal for the Earth: Why It Matters" (2015)

• John Helliwell et al., eds, "World Happiness Report" (April 2013)

• Switzerland Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology, "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants" (April 2008)

BOOKS

• Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Journey of the Universe (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT) (2011)

• Cormac Cullinan, Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice (Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT) (2011)

• Peter Burdon (ed.), Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence (Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia) (2011)

• Leslie Paul Thiele, Indra's Net and the Midas Touch (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) (2011)

• Thomas Berry, The Great Work (Bell Tower, New York City, NY) (1999)

• Jack Turner, The Abstract Wild (Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ) (1996)

• Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self (Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA) (1991)

• Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild (Shoemaker & Hoard, Emeryville, CA) (1990)

• Roderick Frazier Nash, The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI) (1989)

• E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (Harper & Row Publishers, New York City) (1973)

• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (1959)

• Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (Oxford University Press, Oxford) (1949)

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

• Suzanne Goldenberg, "Pope Francis demands UN respect rights of environment over 'thirst for power'," The Guardian (Sept. 25, 2015)

• David Hill, Fracking and Lima climate talks slammed at Nature Rights Tribunal, The Guardian (Dec. 10, 2014)

Other

• Green Party UK: Green Party Position in Support of Rights of Nature

• European Citizens Initiative for the Rights of Nature

• Pope Francis, Speech before the United Nations (Sept. 25, 2015), recognizing nature's rights