14 Oktober 2022
The Mar Menor Lagoon Enjoys Legal Standing: and now, what?
On 30th September, the Spanish Parliament has completed the ‘Mar Menor Act’, granting legal personality to the lagoon of the Mar Menor and its basin. It is the first legal text in Europe which gives rights and legal standing to a natural body. Notably, the process was initiated by a public campaign triggering the legislative procedure. As legal scholars, we fear that this move, although it constitutes a strong expression of ecological awareness, will not solve the lagoon’s serious environmental deterioration. Continue reading >>
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22 Februar 2022
Monkeys in Their Own Right
A few months after the landmark Los Cedros decision, Ecuador’s Constitutional Court has ruled on another important case for the Rights of Nature. For the first time, the Constitutional Court has explicitly recognized that individual animals are protected by the Rights of Nature which also include the right to free development of animal behavior. Continue reading >>
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10 Dezember 2021
The Los Cedros Forest has Rights
Last week, the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court published its judgment in the case of the Los Cedros forest, a protected cloud forest of great biodiversity in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. This judgment revokes environmental permits previously granted to two mining concessions in the Bosque Protector Los Cedros reserve. The Court ruled that the mining permits in question had not only violated several constitutional rights of communities in the area but also – most remarkably – the rights of mother nature (Pacha Mama). It specifically granted these rights to the Los Cedros Reserve. But there is still some uncertainty regarding future applications of this unusual, non-anthropocentric legal standard set by the Court to protect the rights of mother nature. Continue reading >>
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