Rights of Nature in Europe

This book addresses the recognition of the Rights of Nature (RoN) in Europe, examining their conceptualisation and implementation. RoN refers to a diverse set of legal developments that seek to redefine Nature's status within the law, gradually emerging as a novel template for environmental protection. Countries like Ecuador and New Zealand, each with distinct histories and ways of dwelling in the world, have pioneered a new era in environmental governance by legally acknowledging rights or personhood for nature, ecosystems, and more-than-human populations.

In recent years, Europe has witnessed growing interest in RoN, with academic, legislative, and political initiatives gaining momentum. A significant development is the September 2022 passage of a law in the Spanish Parliament, granting legal personhood and rights to the Mar Menor, a saltwater lagoon severely affected by environmental degradation.

Given the diversity in interpretations and articulations of ‘Rights of Nature’, this edited volume argues that their arrival in Europe fosters different kinds of interactions across distinct areas of law, knowledge, practices, and societal domains. The book employs a multidisciplinary approach, exploring these interactions in law and policy, anthropology, Indigenous worldviews and jurisprudence, philosophy, spiritual traditions, critical theory, animal communication, psychology, and social work.

This book is tailored for scholars in law, political science, environmental studies, anthropology and cultural studies; as well as legal practitioners, NGOs, activists and policy-makers interested in ecology and environmental protection.

Jenny García Ruales is an Amazonian anthropologist, currently pursuing her PhD at the Philipps University of Marburg and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany.

Katarina Hovden is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Helen Kopnina is Professor and Researcher in Biodiversity and Business at Northumbria University, UK.

Colin D. Robertson is a Scottish lawyer and member of the Law Society of Scotland, UK.

Hendrik Schoukens is Professor of Environmental Law at Ghent University and lawyer at the bar of Brussels, Belgium.