Creating Synergies between International Law and Rights of Nature

Bibliographic Data

ID4609999
AuthorsJ Gilbert (0000-0003-1377-3494, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume12
Issue3
Pages671-692
Publication date2023-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransnational Environmental Law (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2047-1025 • E-ISSN: 2047-1033
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s2047102523000195
OpenAlexW4389456175
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited33

Against the backdrop of failing environmental governance, rights of nature (RoN) are lauded as the paradigm shift needed to transform law's approach to nature. RoN have been increasingly proclaimed at the domestic level but remain mostly absent from international law. As examined in this article, this is notably as a result of some profound incompatibilities between international law and RoN, including the fact that most international treaties approach nature as a resource to be owned, exploited or protected for the sake of humans. However, despite this dominant approach to nature, some areas of international law, notably under the leadership of Indigenous peoples, are starting to acknowledge a more relational approach to nature, putting forward concepts of care, kinship, and representation of nature in international law. Building on these developments, this article offers a reflection on potential synergies between RoN and international law, specifically by changing the latter's approach to nature. It argues that some of the RoN concepts concerning duty of care, institutional representation of nature's voice, and ecocentrism could serve as a platform to reinterpret some of the anthropocentric principles of international law, creating some potential synergies between RoN and international law

Anthropocentrism · Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental law · Indigenous · International law · Law and economics · Management · Municipal law · Political science · Sociology · Environmental law and policy · Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Law · International Maritime Law Issues · Law · Ecology

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