Environmental Personhood - New Trajectories in Law

This book examines the increasingly widespread movement to recognise the environment as a legal person.
Several countries have now recognized that nature, or parts of nature, have juristic personhood. In this book, the concept of legal personhood and its incidents are interrogated with a view to determining whether this is, or could be, a positive contribution to modern environmental problems. Surveying historical and current positions on the juristic concept of legal personhood, the book engages recent legislation and case law, in order to consider the attempt in several countries to vest personhood in rivers, river basins and ecosystems. Comparing approaches in a range of countries - including New Zealand, India, Ecuador, the United States and Australia, it addresses the methods employed, the purported aims, the mechanisms for enforcement, and the entrenchment of legal protections. Throughout, the book elicits the difficult relationship between an historically anthropocentric idea of personhood and its extension beyond the human; concluding that the attribution of personhood to the environment is an important, but limited, contribution to environmental sustainability.
Accessibly written, this book will appeal to scholars, students and others with interests in environmental law, environmental science and public policy, and ecology more generally.

List of contents

1. Introduction 2. The idea of the legal person 3. Case studies: Modern incidents of environmental personhood 4. Themes and contradictions 4. Conclusions

About the author

Francine Rochford is Associate Professor, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

Summary

This book examines the increasingly widespread movement to recognise the environment as a legal person.

Product details

• Authors: Francine Rochford
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 17.01.2024
• EAN: 9781032482811
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3248281-1
• No. of pages: 100
• Series: New Trajectories in Law
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Miscellaneous; NATURE / Natural Resources, Human Rights, PHILOSOPHY / Social, PHILOSOPHY / Political, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, LAW / International, LAW / Public, LAW / Environmental, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civil Rights, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Environmental Management, Civil rights & citizenship, Human rights, civil rights, Environment law, Public international law: human rights, International human rights law, Agribusiness and primary industries, Primary industries