A river as a legal entity? Rights for nature are no longer unimaginable

Rights for Nature
Jessica from outside
Lemiscate; 153 pages 17.99
★★★★

Author

Jessica den Outer specializes in environmental law and has notably contributed to UN reports on the rights of nature. She is one of the initiators of the Maas in de Wet campaign. The collection was previously published Rights of nature with six case studies on six continents. This seems to be the academic precursor to this book.

Theme

Why couldn’t the Meuse be a person in the legal sense? “If ships and companies can have legal personality”, even if they are human constructions, why not a river? And while we’re at it, why not also “fish, insects, birds, otters, deer, and all the other animals?” In this book, Den Outer actually asks questions with childlike simplicity and seeks answers with the acute tenacity of a lawyer in militant garb.

His approach is also simple, yet effective. She talks about the most important international initiatives in this area: from a small town in Pennsylvania (USA) where it all started to the most famous case in New Zealand, where the Whanganui River was designated as a legal entity for the first time in the world. . She then evokes a seriously polluted saltwater lagoon in Spain, the Amazon rainforest in Colombia, the sacred rivers of India, before ending close to home with the Wadden Sea and the Amelisweerd estate.

As you read, three things become clear. First: Granting rights to nature is now a necessary step to stop pollution and destruction. Second: Protection on paper doesn’t always pay off in practice. Three: it is nevertheless important to persevere. This book shows that the granting of rights to nature allows another type of dialogue. Because nature, often literally, speaks out and enables (local) people to speak out on behalf of nature and protest if necessary.

Reason not to read this book

This book sometimes raises fascinating questions that remain unanswered. For example: the Whanganui River has all the rights, but also the associated duties and responsibilities of a normal legal entity. But why is it useful and justified to hold watercourses responsible if they cause damage? Den Outer also rightly writes that the theme of rights for nature is closely linked to worldviews and that, unfortunately, humans, “especially in the West, are seen as masters of the rest of nature”.

It is therefore no coincidence that the initiatives first emerged among the Maori or the local population of Uttar Pradesh in India. Not everyone is culturally formed with the idea that nature is primarily for us on earth. Den Outer could have said more about these different worldviews and their importance. The themes of the book are rich enough to easily touch the two hundred pages.

Reasons to read this book

We once thought it was inconceivable that “slaves should have their own rights and cease to be the property of slavers” or that women should have the right to vote. And indeed: “Now we can’t imagine it ever being any different.” Moral and legal progress undergoes a fascinating evolution, going from the inconceivable that new rights arise to the inconceivable that they never existed.

The same goes for natural rights. Fascinatingly, this book not only convincingly demonstrates that nature has a right to exist and flourish, but at the same time offers wonderful insight into our own changing moral attitudes. We are now in the midst of a moral and legal upheaval: the idea that nature has rights is neither unimaginable nor obvious. The idea is still a bit crazy for many and at the same time also quite logical. The timing of this book is therefore excellent and the approach of inspiring by example works well. “Look, it’s possible,” shows Den Outer. “Look, it works.”