Developments in Earth law and the Rights of Nature

This outline relates to developments in Earth Law with a particular emphasis on what is commonly referred to as the Rights of Nature movement, which we interpret to mean the recognition of Nature’s fundamental and inherent rights in the Western legal system. Indigenous Nations have their own legal histories that trace the origins of laws, relationships, and responsibilities to the natural world and all beings. These ancient legal orders date to time immemorial. While no timeline can be exhaustive in its coverage, the one below aims to provide a broad overview to empower communities to continue the work of expanding these legal mechanisms.

These are only select advancements towards Earth law. Many more can be found on the U.N. Harmony with Nature page and on other online resources.

     1972:

-        Christopher Stone’s Should Trees Have Standing? envisions legal standing for Nature.

-        Justice Douglas’s dissent in Sierra Club v. Morton supports conferring standing to “environmental objects” in order to sue for their own preservation.

1989:

-        Roderick Frazier Nash discusses the Rights of Nature in The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics.

1999:

-         Thomas Berry introduces the concept of “Earth jurisprudence” in The Great Work.

2001:

-        Indigenous Declaration on Water introduced at the 12th annual Indigenous Environmental Network Protecting Mother Earth Conference.

-        Airlie conference convenes to develop Earth Jurisprudence.

2002:

-        Cormac Cullinan’s Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice is published.

2004:

-         “Wild Law conferences” are hosted in the UK to explore Earth Jurisprudence.

2006:

-        The Center for Earth Jurisprudence is established.

2007: 

-        The World Future Council launches initiatives on crimes against future generations.

-        Hungary appoints a Parliamentary Commissioner for future generations to uphold the public right to a healthy environment. 

-     Tamaqua Borough, Pennsylvania, enacts an ordinance granting “natural communities and ecosystems… inalienable and fundamental rights to exist and flourish.”

2008:

-        Constitution of Ecuador adapted to include rights of nature, such that nature has the “right to exist, persist, maintain itself and regenerate its own vital cycles, structure, functions and its evolutionary processes.”

-        Earth Law Center established.

2009:

-        The United Nations declares April 22 as “International Mother Earth Day.”

-        Earth Jurisprudence classes begin at Schumacher College.

2010:

-        Bolivia passes the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, Law 071.

-        Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature founded.

-        World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth is held in Bolivia.

-        Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania adopts “Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance” recognizing the rights of natural communities and ecosystems.

2011:

-        The first Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature is held, which includes a discussion of the Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth.

-        First successful case implementing Ecuador Constitution on the Rights of the Vilcabamba River.

-        Ecocide Trial (mock trial) held at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

-        Peter Burdon’s Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence is published.

2012:

-        Bolivia passes the Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well (Law 300).

-        Whanganui River Agreement (“Tutohu Whakatupua”) recognizes the independent legal standing of the Whanganui River.

-        First ever law school Earth law course is offered, at Vermont Law School, USA.

-        IUCN incorporates the Rights of Nature as an organizational focal point in IUCN's Decision-making in Resolution WCC-2012-Res-100 (Jeju, Korea).

-        The Future We Want (Rio de Janeiro, June 2012) cites Nature's Rights in ¶ 39.

-        Final Declaration of the People's Summit (Rio de Janeiro) calls for U.N. adoption of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth.

-        Earth Law Alliance and Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) founded.

2013:

-        Earth Law Center co-drafts Santa Monica’s Sustainability Bill of Rights Ordinance.

-        Te Urewera Act gives the Te Urewera National Park in New Zealand the same rights as a legal person.

-        The Federal District of Mexico’s Environmental Law for the Protection of the Earth recognizes the Earth’s basic rights.

-        Resolution on the Rights of Nature (Res-#6) adopted at the 10th World Wilderness Congress (Salamanca, Spain, October 2013).

-        Linda Sheehan (Earth Law Center) presents “‘Earth Jujitsu’ - Escaping the Climate Chokehold by Adapting to Nature’s Rights” at TEDxMarin.

-        UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other speakers advocate for the Rights of Nature at the Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature.

2014:

-        The Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) is signed, establishing personhood for the Whanganui River and co-governance for the Whanganui Iwi (New Zealand).

-        The world’s first Tribunal on the Rights of Nature and Mother Earth is held in Quito, Ecuador.

-    The second International Rights of Nature Tribunal is held concurrently with UNFCCC COP 20 in Lima, Peru.

-    Regional tribunals are held on the Chevron Refinery (Oakland, CA), the Yasuni-ITT (Ecuador), and the Great Barrier Reef (Australia).

-        The Constitution of the state of Guerrero in Mexico recognizes the Rights of Nature in Article 2.

-        The Group of 77 adopts the Declaration of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, "Towards a New World Order to Live Well."

-        Earth Law Center releases  “Fighting for Our Shared Future: Protecting Both Human Rights and Nature's Rights” on “co-violations” of rights.

-        Grant Township, PA passes the  Community Bill of Rights Ordinance, establishing rights to clean air and water and the rights of Nature.

-        Proposal to recognize the Rights of Nature introduced in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

-        Rights of Nature movement listed as #5 in the “top 10 grassroots movements taking on the world” by Shift Magazine.

2016:

-        Judge in Argentina rules that a chimpanzee has legal rights and should be released from the zoo in which it was caged.

-        Mumta Ito presents “Enshrining Rights of Nature in Law” at TEDx Findhorn.

-        Craig Kauffman and Pamela Martin publish “Testing Ecuador’s Rights of Nature: Why Some Lawsuits Succeed and Others Fail.”

-        United Kingdom Green Party formally adopts the Rights of Nature.

-        The first International Forum of Rights of Mother Earth is held.

-        IUCN Academy of Environmental Law adopts “Oslo Manifesto” for an Ecological Law and Governance Association (ELGA).

-        Final Declaration of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law drafted in Rio includes “Principle 1: Responsibility to Protect Nature.”

-        IUCN adopts Rights of Nature into the 2017-2020 Work Programme.

2017:

-        The Constitutional Court of Colombia recognizes the Atrato River as a subject of rights, with the rights of protection, conservation, maintenance, and restoration.

-        The Whanganui River earns the legal status of a person through the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017.

-        India’s High Court of Uttarakhand rules that the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers, the Gangotri and Yamunotri glaciers, and other ecosystems are legal persons with rights (later stayed by the Supreme Court)

-        The Inter-American Court of Human Rights releases an Advisory Opinion OC-23/17) finding that the  “[t]he right of a healthy environment is an autonomous right . . . protect[ing] the components of the environment, such as forests, rivers, seas and others, as legal interests in themselves."

-        Mexico City includes Rights of Nature in its new Constitution.

-        The Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, USA, recognized the Rights of Nature by statute.

-        The Municipality of Bonito, Brazil, enacts a law which recognizes the right of nature to “exist, thrive, and evolve.”

-        Colorado River v. State of Colorado is filed in U.S. federal court seeking to enforce the rights of the Colorado River (later withdrawn).

-        The Fourth International Rights of Nature Tribunal is held in Bonn-Germany, presided by Tom Goldtooth (Turtle Nation - EUA).

-        Concept of "Ocean Rights" presented in front of the UN General Assembly at the first UN Ocean Conference.

2018:

-        The Colombian Supreme Court recognizes the Colombian Amazon as a “subject of rights.”

-        The Administrative Court of Boyacá in Colombia recognizes the Páramo in Pisba, a high Andean ecosystem facing significant mining, as a “subject of rights.”

-        The Nonhuman Rights Project case seeking habeas corpus for a chimpanzee in New York makes progress towards nonhuman rights, with the NY Court of Appeals finding, “While it may be arguable that a chimpanzee is not a ‘person,’ there is no doubt that it is not merely a thing.”

-        The Municipality of Paudalho, Brazil, enacts a rights of nature law.

-        The White Earth Band of the Chippewa Nation adopt the “Rights of the Manoomin” law, securing legal rights for a traditional staple crop of the Anishinaabe people.

-        Santa Monica applies the rights of local aquifers to flourish through an ordinance banning new, private water wells and expansion of existing wells until the City develops an adequate groundwater management plan.

2019:

-        The High Court Division (HCD) of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh recognizes legal rights of the river Turag and then extends these rights to all rivers in a sweeping ruling.

-        The State of Colima, Mexico approves an amendment to the state constitution recognizing the Rights of Nature.

-        Uganda recognizes nature as having “the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution” in the National Environmental Act.

-        The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is passed by Toledo, Ohio, recognizing the rights of Lake Erie. (Later challenged in court; outcome pending.)

-        The Yurok Tribe passes a resolution recognizing the rights of the Klamath River and allows cases to be brought to the tribal court on behalf of the river.

-        Michelle Bender’s Ocean Rights: A Roadmap to a Liveable Future is published.

-        The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approves a pronouncement deeming that “forests are living entities” with commensurate human duties to protect and restore them.

-        The Superior Court of Medellín recognizes the Cauca River, including its basin and tributaries, as a subject of legal rights.

-        The Plata River in Colombia is recognized as a “subject of rights.”

-        The First Criminal Court in Neiva-Huila, Colombia, recognizes the Magdalena River, its basin, and tributaries as possessing rights to “protection, conservation, maintenance, and restoration.”

-        The Regional Court of the Province of Tolima, Colombia, recognizes the rights of the Coello, Combeima, and Cocora Rivers.

-        The National Lawyers Guild adds “Rights of Nature” to the organization’s constitution.

-        The Municipality of Florianópolis in Brazil adopts Organic Law 133 recognizing the rights of nature.

-        District judge in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, ruled in favor of protecting the Atoyac and Salado Rivers based on human environmental rights and rights of future generations.

-        A bill to recognize Rights of Nature is introduced into the Congress of the Philippines.

-        A Rights of Nature and Future Generations Bill is introduced into the Parliament of Western Australian.

-        The Dutch municipality of Nordeast-Fryslan proposed grants special rights to the Wadden Sea and creates an independent governance authority for ecosystem protection.

2020:

-        Earth Law Center and partners publish a law school coursebook, Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law—A Guide for Practitioners (2020, Wolters Kluwer).

-        The Municipality of Curridabat, Costa Rica, affords citizenship to pollinators, trees and native plants.

-        The Nez Perce Tribe General Council passed a resolution recognizing rights of the Snake River, including the right to exist, flourish, evolve, flow, regenerate, and be restored. It envisions a legal guardianship body to enforce those rights.

-        The Ecuadorian Constitutional Court heard arguments in a case to protect the Los Cedros Protected Forest from mining.

-        Universal Declaration of the Rights of Rivers launched online with signatures from across the globe.

-        Rights of Rivers report by International Rivers, Earth Law Center, and the Vance Center documents dramatic rise in rights of rivers cases globally.

-        The Spanish municipality of Los Alcázares approves an initiative to recognize the rights of the Mar Menor lagoon.

-        Advocates introduce legislation to establish the legal rights of the River Ethiope in Nigeria.

-        The Menominee Indian Tribe assert that the Menominee River has inherent rights to exist and flourish.

-        Los Nevados National Natural Park in Colombia is declared a special subject of rights for its protection, recovery, and conservation.

-        Judges qualified mismanagement of fires in Chiquitania by the Plurinational State of Bolivia as ecocide.

-        Kelsey Leonard gives TED Talk on “Why lakes and rivers should have the same rights as humans.”

-        The Alliance for the Sacred Sites of Earth Gaia released the Declaration for the Protection of Sacred Natural Sites.

-        The Tŝilhqot’in Nation (Canada) enacts a “ʔEsdilagh Sturgeon River Law” recognizing that “[p]eople, animals, fish, plants, the nen [land], and the tu [water] have rights in the decisions about their care and use that must be considered and respected.”

-        Voters in Orange County, Florida, pass an ordinance establishing the legal rights of the Wekiva and Econlockhatchee Rivers.

-        The Democratic Party’s Climate Council (USA) makes the recommendation to “Establish a commission…to explore incorporating Rights of Nature principles into U.S. law.”

2021:

-        Deputies in Oaxaca introduce a state constitutional amendment that would recognize the Rights of Nature and establish a legal guardianship body to enforce those rights.

-        Stop Ecocide convenes an expert drafting panel to an create exact legal definition of “ecocide” as a recognized crime.

-        Rights of the Magpie River/Muteshekau Shipu recognized by the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Minganie Regional County Municipality (RCM) (with support from OIDN and others).

- The Green Party in the UK creates a Rights of Nature Act that would give legal protection for wildlife and habitats in England and Wales. 

- Ecuador’s Constitutional Court votes in favor of granting the Rights of Nature to safeguard the Los Cedros cloud forest from mining concessions.

- Donegal City Council in Ireland unaminously votes in favor of adopting the Rights of Nature. 

- Congress in Spain passes a law that allows animals to be considered as sentient beings, not just objects. 

-The town of Nederland, CO, recognizes the rights of Boulder Creek and the Boulder Creek Watershed through passing a resolution.

2022:

- Panama recognizes the Rights of Nature and creates ecocentric principles in its national legislation. 

- The Mar Menor lagoon in Spain is granted legal rights, making it the first area in the country to have these protections. 

- The Madras High Court of India grants Rights of Nature to Mother Nature, thereby giving Mother Nature the status of a legal person.  

- Gig Harbor, Washington, and Port Townsend, Washington city councils, among other polities in the Pacific Northwest, recognize the legal rights of Southern Resident Orcas. 

- The House of Commons in Canada gives legal rights to the St. Lawrence River, thereby preserving and protecting it. 

- The UN Secretary General recognizes the advances of Eco Jurisprudence. 

- COP15, an international conference, recognizes rights-based protection in the framework of its targets.

- The intrinsic value of native corn is recognized in a law passed by the Congress of the State of Mexico. 

-Recognition of Grand Lake and its watershed’s fundamental and inalienable rights are given in Colorado.

2023:

- Aruba drafts a Constitutional Amendment to recognize the Rights of Nature, making it only the second country to constitutionally recognize the Rights of Nature. 

- Rights of salmon in Seattle, US, to have passageways around dams are protected in a case from a lawsuit filed by the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe. 

- The Municipality of Guajará-Mirim in Brazil recognizes the Rights of Nature for the River Laje, making it the first river in Brazil to have rights. 

- Panama passes conservation legislation for sea turtles, giving them rights to a clean environment and allowing any Panamanian citizen to be their voice in protecting them. 

- The LIP Environmental Code (CEPIL) in France is updated to include natural entities in law, giving animals new legal status. 

- The government of Bolivia creates a report of Vivir Bien (Good Living) that promotes living in harmony with Mother Nature. 

- Ireland’s Parliamentary Committee agrees that there should be an advancement of a national referendum including the Rights of Nature. 

-An Ecocide Bill is submitted to Brazil’s Congress, with the goal of making long-term damage to the environment illegal.

2024:

- Galicia’s city council unaminously adopts the Declaration of Rights of the Tins River, giving the river 10 rights and making it the first river in Spain to have rights. 

- The Marañon River in Peru is recognized as a legal entity, setting a new precedent in Peru, and has the Kukama Federation of Indigenous women river defenders appointed as its co-guardian. 

- Bolivia recognizes the impact Indigenous communities have had as caretakers of Mother Earth in launching the platform "Plural Wisdoms of Indigenous and Native People Towards a Cosmobiocentric World from the Codes of Living Well."

- The legislature of the State of Mexico recognizes the Rights of Nature and the rights of native endemic species by reforming two of the articles (articles 8 and 15) of their constitution.