Representing the Rights of Nature - Learning from the Maori BA Small Grant Award Date: 2022-23. Principal Investigator.
To combat the vast environmental problems which we face, we need to develop new strategies for protecting the non-human environment. One promising strategy has been to grant ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, and mountains, legal personhood. These entities then possess the legal rights to protect their interests from human exploitation. This strategy has been most successful in New Zealand, where since 2017 several ecosystems have been granted legal personhood. Indigenous Mãori groups are typically the driving force behind these changes, Mãori worldviews are reflected in the legal policies, and Mãori tribes stand as guardians of nature’s rights. This ground-breaking model of environmental protection combines Western legal frameworks with indigenous worldviews to decolonise dominant approaches to environmental governance. This project will undertake an interdisciplinary analysis of this model, to discover what drivers might be applicable to a European context, and what attitudes and institutions could support legitimate guardianship of nature’s rights.
The Future of the Rights of Nature - An Interdisciplinary Scoping Analysis UKRI/AHRC Scoping Award. More details here. Date: 2020-22. Co-Investigator. With the INSRoN research network.
An interdisciplinary exploration into the legal, philosophical, and scientific basis for awarding rights to non-human natural entities (such as rivers and mountains). The project involved lawyers, economists, ecologists, anthropologists and philosophers, and compared resources from each of these disciplines to discover possible areas of collaboration and divergence in the area of nature's rights.
Outputs: - Scoping survey for the AHRC - Co-authored Research Paper - This animated short video
Networks and Collaborations
Interdisciplinary Network on the Study of the Rights of Nature
Centre for Practical Philosophy, Theology and Religion