The Rights of Nature: Theory and Practice

In 2008, the Republic of Ecuador became the first country to grant legal rights to nature. In this article, I examine how this new category of rights became incorporated into the country’s constitution. My analysis shows that while proponents of nature’s rights effectively took advantage of a key political moment, it is unlikely their efforts would have succeeded without two historical developments: first, the presence of environmentalist social movements that elevated the environmental agenda at the national level during prior decades, and second, the power of indigenous organizations and their call to recognize Ecuador as a ‘plurinational’ polity, a form of multiculturalism which, along with demanding respect for indigenous territories and ways of life, incorporates politicized versions of indigenous beliefs about the environment. The study considers the consequences of mobilization for legal innovation and institutional change, as well as showing the complexity of struggles over the environment in the global South. The article is based on research at the Ecuadorian National Legislative Assembly archive, semi-structured interviews with respondents involved in the politics of nature and the constitutional assembly, and secondary historical sources.

2021

In 2008, Ecuador recognized the Constitutional Rights of Nature in a global first. This recognition implies a major shift in the human-nature relationship, from one between a subject with agency (humans) and an exploitable object (Nature), to a more equilibrated relationship of respect. However, the lack of a standard legal framework has left room for subjective interpretations and variable implementation. The recent widespread concessioning of pristine ecosystems to mining industries in Ecuador has set up an unprecedented conflict and test of these rights. Currently, a landmark case involving Los Cedros Protected Forest and mining companies has reached the Constitutional Court of Ecuador. If Ecuador’s highest Court rules in favor of Los Cedros and the Rights of Nature, it would set a legal precedent with enormous impact on biological conservation in Ecuador and, potentially, the world. Such a policy shift offers a novel conservation strategy, through citizen oversight and action.

2016

This thesis investigates whether and if so how the incorporation of a concept from an indigenous worldview is able to influence a country's development model. The constitutional rights of nature in Ecuador are used as case. In 2008 Ecuador became the first country in the world to make nature a subject of rights, and they did this by invoking nature as la Pachamama, the Kichwa Mother Earth deity. This is a biocentric notion which challenges the modernist vision of nature as subject to human use. In this study the rights of nature are deemed as still open to interpretation however, and their meaning as attempted fixed in a discursive struggle. In interview data from relevant actors in Ecuador three different discourses on the rights of nature are identified. The Ecosocialist Discourse represents the rights of nature as a justification for continued struggle against the capitalist system. The Transformative Discourse represents the rights of nature as a potential instrument for a necessary global transformation of the humannature relationship. The Anthropocentric Developmentalist Discourse represents the rights of nature as a possible form of stronger environmental regulation. The discourses' influence on development policy is found to depend on scale. Elements from the Transformative Discourse are found in Ecuador's overarching development ambitions, while the Anthropocentric Developmentalist Discourse is found to be the language of policy-making. This incorporation of a concept from a different non-modern ontology has opened up space for discursive agency, but its influence on Ecuador's development model remains limited; policies are still developed within the parameters of an anthropocentric ontological framework. VII VIII Acknowledgements The work on this thesis has allowed me to delve into the topics I find the most interesting, and I have learned a lot. For this I am very grateful. This is a gratitude I have to extend to a lot of people. First and foremost I would like to thank my informants in Ecuador with all my heart, for generously taking their time to answer my questions. This thesis would not exist if it were not for you, and I hope you can find the results at little bit interesting as well. To my supervisor Associate Professor Jemima García-Godos, thank you so much for your excellent and motivating guidance and thorough feedback. Thank you to the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo for the generous fieldwork grant and the inspiring teaching staff. I am very grateful to the Norwegian Network for Latin American Research, NorLARNet, for awarding me their master student scholarship and allowing me to take part in the stimulating research environment at SUM. A special thank you to the Norwegian People's Aid, particularly Cristina Santacruz, for suggesting informants and checking up on me. Thank you to Analiz Vergara, for help with informants and inviting me along on the hike. Thank you to Claudia and Naazy for including me in your Quito life. A huge thank you to Synne Laastad Dyvik, Trym Nohr Fjørtoft and Bodhild Laastad/mamma for generously providing useful feedback on the draft version, I really appreciate it. I want to thank my friends, both near and far, I feel lucky to know so many lovely and inspiring people. There's too many to mention by name but I especially want to thank my flatmates and (more or less) neighbours past and present for being kind, hilarious and awesome, in general. Thank you for endless dinners, conversations, nights out and adventures. Fellow course mates: We have spent an unhealthy amount of time together these past two years, and yet I have enjoyed every bit of it. Thank you for the fun and the absurdities. Finally, to my whole kind family. To my grandma, for your warmth. An everlasting, enormous thank you to my parents, for the love, support and the 'you can do it's.

Representing the Absent, 2023

This Chapter involves a study on the Rights of Nature (RoN). RoN comprehends the establishment of a set of specific rights, as well as the recognition of a new legal subject (nature) at the national and at the international levels. For example, on the international level, various international forums slowly envision nature as a potential right holder. Even though this has yet to transpire in formulating and adopting an international treaty establishing that, the language of the RoN now commonly appears in different international soft law documents. Latin American jurisdictions have served as inspiration for those documents, since the recognition of RoN in the region has been considered as paradigmatic. However, the regional recognition of nature's rights has not been free of ambiguities, especially when it is considered together with the recognition of another new legal entity: the Future Generations. The interactions between those new right holders in Latin America have been scarcely studied; this contribution seeks to fill that gap.

The rights of nature can be a powerful tool for thinking anew our relationships with so-called "natural beings" conceived as political subjects, and for protecting them against exploitative corporate interests. In this paper, I first inquire into the theory behind this idea and the underlying conceptions of political subjectivity and representation allowing for giving rights to nature. I then analyze some actual cases where rights have been given to nature - notably in Ecuador, Bolivia, the United States, New-Zealand and India - and their relations with the theory.

In 2008, Ecuador became the first country in the world to adopt ecological thinking in its constitution by codifying the rights of nature. This marks an important milestone in green political theory where arguably the most radical environmental ethic has been taken out of theory and put into practice. This dissertation will critically analyse what has been called, ‘the world’s first environmental constitution’ (Kupfer 2011). There is precious little in the way of published research on this matter, and with the previous researchers unwilling to take critical positions, studying the utility and impact of Ecuador’s ‘greening’ is timely. This dissertation finds that the non-human rights regime has struggled at each level, from the legal translation of the requirements through to the application and enforcement of its principles. Nevertheless, Ecuador’s greening has played an important role in forging new initiatives which may better integrate conservation and development policies in the future. With remarkable conceptual narrowness in tackling environmental damage, this is valuable

New Frontiers in Environmental Constitutionalism, 2017

2019

2014

Is it possible to justify resource extractivism to provide progressive welfare politics and still respect the constitutional rights of nature? The Indigenous concept of Sumak Kawsay on human beings living in harmony with each other and the environment is the fundamental framing of the new constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia. These constitutional reforms embrace strengthened proper rights of nature and similarly of ethnic rights. However, the same constitutions grant the State the right to exploit and commercialize natural resources and extractivism has increased. This study revises the tensions between welfare politics, extractivism and the rights of nature and the Indigenous peoples in the new constitutional settings of Bolivia and, particularly, Ecuador. The article argues that Sumak Kawsay challenges dominating understandings of the concepts of welfare, common good and development, and likewise that a pragmatic approach is applied by national governments towards the constitutional rights of nature amidst other human values.

Transnational Environmental Law, 2023

In 2008, Ecuador recognized rights of nature (RoN) in its Constitution. Since then, RoN have been relied upon in judicial decisions 55 times in Ecuador. Following years of ad hoc treatment of RoN by Ecuador's government and courts, its Constitutional Court selected various cases to establish binding jurisprudence in respect of RoN. In doing so, the Constitutional Court and various provincial courts in Ecuador have clarified the content of RoN, including specific criteria for determining RoN violations and the relationship between RoN and other constitutional rights, including community and economic rights related to development. Moreover, the courts are imposing sanctions on RoN violators, including the state and powerful commercial sectors. This article shows how Ecuadorian court decisions are changing RoN from a vague, abstract concept into a set of specific standards for how to balance RoN with various human rights and existing environmental law in order to implement sustainable development in an integrated and holistic manner that does not sacrifice ecosystem functioning. In doing so, the article contributes to the emerging literature on how new environmental law norms are constructed as they are put into practice, as well as the important role that judges play as norm entrepreneurs.