In the wake of the current climate crisis, conceptions over recognising nature, or non-human entities as subjects with legal rights, are receiving large-scale public support across the globe. Nature’s rights advocates base their ideas on scientific findings as much as on indigenous knowledge, understanding nature – its flora fauna, and dynamic landscapes – as living entities. They argue that national justice systems have to become viable spaces through which non-human living subjects can seek protection. Following the amendments made to the Ecuadorian constitution in 2008 to integrate non-human claimants into judicial processes, this anthropological case study uses ethnographic methods to examine the practical application – debates and outcomes – of nature’s rights claims in a court of law.
Related Activities
Join our WORKSHOP on the topic “Ontological and Normative Collisions: Struggles over Nature’s Rights” on the 27th and 28th October 2021 at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research (Laura Affolter) in friendly collaboration with the University of Amsterdam (Martha Dietrich) and the University of Bremen (Andreas Gutmann).
Listen to the Manchester Museum Podcast, episode “Nature’s Rights – Who cares?” The herpetologist Andrew Gray in conversation with the social anthropologist Martha Dietrich.