Legal Personhood and Rights of Nature
Bridging Relational Vedda Worldviews and Sri Lankan Law
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21874682 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Asanka Edirisinghe (0000-0002-1359-662X, Macquarie University, corresponding author), Sandie Suchet-Pearson (0000-0002-5200-5976, Macquarie University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 630-658 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transnational Environmental Law (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2047-1025 • E-ISSN: 2047-1033 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s2047102525100101 |
| OpenAlex | W4417243070 |
| Language | EN |
Sri Lanka’s Indigenous Vedda community, also known as Vanniyalaththo, has profound relationships with nature that are not recognized by the country’s colonial history and, subsequently, its Western-influenced legal framework. This article explores how the gap between relational Vedda laws and state-based law in Sri Lanka can be bridged. It suggests that the emerging paradigms of legal personhood and Rights of Nature, which acknowledge the more-than-instrumental values of nature, can serve as a starting point for bridging this gap. By exploring the relational ontologies of Vedda law, this article advocates broader recognition of Vedda worldviews within the existing state-based law in Sri Lanka and highlights the role of Indigenous communities as non-state actors in shaping more-than-human governance
Colonialism · Indigenous · Indigenous rights · Legal pluralism · Personhood · Sri lanka · Environmental law and policy · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Legal and cultural studies analysis
| Highly cited | No |
|---|