RIGHTS OF NATURE IN ACTION: AN ANALYSIS OF LAWS IN ECUADOR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46480/esj.9.2.218Keywords:
Rights , Nature, Environment, Justice, environmental impact, environmental managementAbstract
The keen interests in the rights of nature is not only about the grant of rights to trees, rivers, oceans and all of nature such that they could stand in the court of law for themselves and on behalf of themselves. The most interesting part of this grant is imagining how these ecosystems would stand in court to speak for themselves. From property to person, and standing in court, this article will analyse, firstly, the grant of rights of nature in Ecuador within the Ecuador Constitution 2008 and justify why Ecuador is being chosen as a case study. Secondly, it will assess how nature is being represented in the courts by assessing some of the case laws that have emerged on the rights of nature. Thirdly, this article will draw arguments from the analysis of the grant of rights of nature to propose an eco-centred representative model for ecosystems as legal persons. Overall, with analysis different case laws, journal articles, textbook and other sources of law, this article will posit that there should be a review of the law that grants the rights of nature in Ecuador to ensure effective and justiceable representation of the rights of nature in the court of law; and in addition to this, representatives of the rights of nature should be trained to mirror a true representation of the rights of nature.
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BOOKS
• Kauffman C and Martin P.L, The Politics of Rights of Nature: Strategies for Building a More Sustainable Future (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press 2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/13855.001.0001
JOURNAL ARTICLES
• Dyschkant A, ‘Legal Personhood: How We are Getting it Wrong’ (2015) University of Illinois Law Review 2075, 2100.
• Elliot R, Faking Nature: The Ethics of Environmental Restoration (Routledge 1997) 78.
• Kauffman C and Martin P, ‘Testing Ecuador’s Rights of Nature: Why Some Lawsuits Succeed and Others Fail’ (2016) Article Presented at the International Studies Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, March 18, 2016 1,9
• Kotze L, J and Calzadilla P.V., ‘Somewhere between Rhetoric and Reality: Environmental Constitutionalism and the Rights of Nature in Ecuador’ (2017) Transnational Environmental Law 1,4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102517000061
• Whittenmore M. E, ‘The problem of Enforcing Nature’s Rights under Ecuador’s Constitution: Why the 2008 Environmental Amendments Have No Bite’ (2011) 20 (3) Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal Association 659,668.
• Wilson Z, ‘Whaganui Chronicle- Te Awa Tupua will Take Time to Manifest’ (2017) accessed 15 December 2024.
• Youatt R, ‘Personhood and the Rights of Nature: The New Subjects of Contemporary Earth Politics’ [2017] International Political Sociology,1, 11 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olw032
CASE LAWS
• Collection of 16 Community Members from Canton Santo Domingo De Los Colorados v Juan Rivadeneira, Director of the Company PRONACA (2009) 0567-08-RA CC.
• Conaie (Indigenous Movement) and Community Water Councils v 2009 Mining Law (2009) 0008-09-IN Y 0011-09-IN (Acumulados) CC (Conaie case).
• Environmental Activists (Yasunidos Chimborazo, Accion Ecologica) & Indigenous Pastorate of Chimborazo V Ervic S.A. (Private Company Owned by Retired Military Captain, Carlos Rhor Romeno).
• Esmeraldas v Manuel De Los Santos of Marmexa Shrimp Company.
• Ministry Of Environment v Luis Alfredo Obando Pomaquero (Hunter) (2012) 0010-2011; Provincial Director of Environment Ministry in Napo Province V Manuel Damian (Hunter).
• Nori Huddle and Richard Fredrick Wheeler (local landowners) v Provincial government of Loja, (2011) 11121-2011-0010 PCL.
STATUTES
• Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador 2008
• Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017
WEBSITE RESOURCES
• Environmental Justice Atlas ‘Road Widening at Vilcabamba River and Recognition of Rights of Nature Ecuador’ <>
• Tanasescu M, ‘The Rights of Nature: Theory and Practice’ unpublished 6
https://www.academia.edu/25399912/The_Rights_of_Nature_Theory_and_Practice?auto=download
• Greene N, ‘The First Successful Case of the Rights of Nature Implementation in Ecuador’ <https://therightsofnature.org/first-ron-case-ecuador/>
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