The pluralism of river rights in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Colombia

Bibliographic Data

ID7440376
AuthorsElizabeth Macpherson (0000-0003-1021-9930, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Felipe Clavijo Ospina (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
Year2020
Publication date2020-10-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypePREPRINT
PublisherCenter for Open Science (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.31235/osf.io/rdh4x
OpenAlexW3172290392
LanguageEN
Citations received13

In this article we interrogate the recognition of rivers as legal persons in Aotearoa New Zealand (Whanganui River) and Colombia (Ri'o Atrato). Although the legal, political, historical and cultural context for recognition is different in each country, an analysis of the cases presents some interesting conceptual correlations, which help us to understand this emerging (and sometimes controversial) transnational idea that a river can be a person. In both cases recognising that the river is a person is an attempt to accommodate diverse legal and cultural interests in the river, in order to establish a new collaborative relationship between the state and river communities. Whether either model results in improved river outcomes, or increased indigenous or community jurisdiction to govern, turns not on the fiction that the river is a person but on the surrounding institutional framework, which has been carefully designed to engender enforceability. Thus, we argue, traditional dichotomies that draw lines between human-centred and earth-centred laws, or nature as the object versus the subject of property or rights fail to capture what legal personality entails. Ahora es el momento de comenzar a to mar las primeras medidas para proteger de forma eficaz al planeta y a sus recursos antes de que sea demasiado tarde o el dano sea irreversible, no solo para las futuras generaciones sino para la especie humana.2 Now is the moment to begin to take the first steps effectively to protect the planet and its resources before it is too late or the damage is irreversible, not just for future generations but for the human species. This is the author-produced PDF of an article, accepted for publication in [Journal of Water Law], following peer review. The Version of Record [Macpherson, E. & Ospina, F.C. 2015, "The pluralism of river rights in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Colombia", Journal of Water Law, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 283-293] is available in [Journal of Water Law, vol 25, issue 6 at 283-293]. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Aotearoa · Indigenous rights · Personhood · Environmental law and policy · International Environmental Law and Policies · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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