Nature as a legal entity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Fischer-Lescano
• Subject Area: Public Law ; Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 421427080

While the law has known non-human persons only in the form of legal persons under private or public law for a long time, expanding of the circle of legal persons increasingly becomes the focus of controversial debate. In the recent past the emergence of Rights of Nature can be observed in many legal systems around the globe, some authors even see a global trend in this direction. For example, the daily press reported that in New Zealand a national park and later a river were declared as legal persons by legal act. The same happened in Colombia and India by court rulings. The declaration of natural objects worthy of special protection as legal entities allows environmental protection associations to file appeals on their behalf and is intended to contribute to solving the pressing environmental problems of our time. The most decisive step towards Rights of Nature is taken in Ecuador, where the constitution gives rights to the entire nature in their entirety in Art. 10 para. 2 and 71 para. 1. According to Art. 71 para. 2 of the Constitution, the Rights of Nature can be claimed by any person in or out of court.The follow-up project aims to investigate the changes brought about by the recognition of this new legal entity. On the one hand, it will consider the impact of the Rights of Nature beyond Ecuador. Of particular interest is the transferability of the concept to other legal systems and the dogmatic problems, conflicts, but also opportunities that may arise. It will consider initiatives that claim Rights of Nature throughout the world and also increasingly in Europe. In particular, due to the German-Ecuadorian cooperation, questions arise as to whether and how access to courts has been effectively implemented in Ecuador and to what extent access to German or European courts could be expanded on a procedural level. In this framework, the question of representation of nature will also be relevant. On a legal-theoretical level, it will be necessary to analyse how nature is represented in law and what effects this has on the theory of the (legal) person. Furthermore, it will be considered how natural entities can be granted the possibility of articulation in judicial proceedings and what role civil society movements can play in this. The project hopes to gain deeper insights into the emergence of new non-human legal persons and the significance of ascribing subjective rights to non-human entities.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Ecuador
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Alex Iván Valle Franco