Exploring Environmental Law, Activism, and the Rights of Nature

The previous blog posts in this series looked at what it means to be ‘for nature’ and how we conceptualise society, covering social ecology and relational/holistic models of society and nature. Now, we in the final post in the series, we look at what this means for law.

This is the second blog post in a series of three. The first blog post looked at what it means to be for Nature, in particular the idea of social ecology. This second blog post will look at how we understand society. The third in the series will then look at what this means for law, expanding from Earth Jurisprudence to what I have termed ‘Interconnected Law’.

I’m writing these blog posts to share what I’ve learned and how my thinking has developed since I first encountered Earth Jurisprudence about seven years ago.

The release of The Felling Film, which catalogues the years-long struggle by local activists in Sheffield to stop their street trees being destroyed by the local city council, is an excellent excuse to look back and take stock of that campaign and the many lessons it can teach UK nature protectors.

Arguably, injustice cannot be fixed by repeating the same economic models and patterns of exploitation that are the very cause of it.

In October 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed the much-awaited Resolution 48/13, which recognises the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

We need ‘wild lawyers’, ‘lawyers for nature’ or ‘earth lawyers’: those committed to enacting and upholding the Rights of Nature through whatever legal avenues and means that are available.

Six years ago, 193 countries signed the Paris Agreement which aims at limiting the rise in global average temperature well below 2C above pre-industrial level, with an aspirational target of reaching 1.5C.

The Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, the first major announcement of the COP26, commits 137 countries, including Brazil, China and Indonesia, to “halt and reverse” deforestation by 2030.