Realizing Rights of Nature

The project Realizing the Rights of Nature: Sustainable Development and Democracy examines issues raised in the 2030 Agenda, the UN’s target document for economically, socially and environmentally sustainable development. The project’s starting point is the various initiatives taken by activists, legislators and courts over the past fifteen years to protect nature from exploitation by attributing independent rights and intrinsic value to mountains, rivers or nature as a whole. These initiatives are collectively known as the Rights of Nature (RoN). What they have in common is that nature is in some form considered a subject with rights. The idea that nature has its own rights is one of many possible ways to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda.

We examine the potential of the notion of nature as an independent legal subject from a political, legal and historical perspective. The idea of ​​the rights of nature and nature as a legal subject appears as a new way of thinking about rights. But we place it in a longer tradition of liberalism and rights thinking where individual property rights, freedom of contract and legal subjectivity are both supporting ideas and fundamental premises.

In this liberal tradition, there are built-in tensions between the individual, the collective and “nature”. We have identified four central areas of tension that we examine in more detail in the project: (1) the contradiction between property rights and RoN, (2) the tension between human rights and RoN, (3) the contradiction between individual and collective rights, (4) the difficulty for democratic institutions that protect individual human rights to also guarantee rights for non-human subjects.

These issues pose challenges for today's liberal market economies. We believe that history can contribute to understanding the issues surrounding RoN as a possible path to sustainable and inclusive development.

News

Interviews

Project research assistant Anton Andersen conducted 14 interviews with individuals whose work involves the protection of the environment or the use of its resources. Our analysis of these interviews can be found in our article “Contemplating Rights of Nature in Sweden: Democratic Legitimacy, Conflict, and Centralization of Power.” The article demonstrates how concerns about the harm to democratic systems are built upon several interlocking assumptions regarding human-nature relationships, the limits of human knowledge about nature, and the proliferation of conflict engendered by recognition of nature’s rights. The artile is part of the Nordic Environmental Law Journal 2024 Special Issue, freely available at https://nordiskmiljoratt.se/earlier-issues.html.

Symposium

We held our symposium with the title “National Interest, Representation, and the State: Implications for the Recognition of Rights of Nature” on 5 June 2023 at the Humanistiska Theatre at Uppsala University. We thank the speakers and participants who contributed to the day. Please see below for the symposium’s program:

Program for symposium:

9.00 – 09.15: Morning Refreshments

09.15- 10.00: Introductions

Welcoming Remarks: Seth Epstein, Researcher, Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society, Uppsala University

Initial Address: Claes Tängh Wrangel, Researcher and Acting Managing Director at Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR), Uppsala University

Title: “Dreams of a decolonial language? Critical theory and the Anthropocene”

10.00 -10.45: Presentations on National Interest

Love Rönnelid, Postdoctoral Researcher, Law Faculty, Uppsala University

Title: “Some potential implications of using rights-based argumentation in the law to protect nature”

Maria Refors Legge, Researcher, Legal Department, Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI)

Title: “Nature as a right for future generations”

10.45- 11.30 Discussion in small groups in separate rooms

11.30-11.45 General discussion in the Humanities Theatre

11.45- 13.00 LUNCH

13.15- 14.00 Presentations on Representation

Jonas Hultin Rosenberg, Researcher, Political Science Department, Uppsala University

Title: “The democratic representation of nature and other entities that cannot represent themselves”

Christina Allard, Associate Professor of Law, Division of Social Sciences, Luleå University of Technology

Title: “Indigenous rights and communities' relations with nature”

14.00- 14.45 Discussion in small groups in separate rooms

14.45 -15.00 General discussion in the Humanities Theatre

15.00- 15.30 Afternoon coffee and pastries

15.30 – 17.00 Reflection and discussion in the Humanities Theatre

Pella Thiel, Knowledge Expert, United Nations Harmony with Nature Initiative

Michael Nausner, Systematic Theologian and Researcher at the Unit for Research and Analysis of the Church of Sweden

The Nordic Environmental Law Journal 2024 Special Issue

The 2024 Special Issue of the Nordic Environmental Law Journal is based on our 2023 symposium, “National Interest, Representation and the State: Implications for the Recognition of Rights of Nature.” Project members served as the guest editors for the special issue. The issue contains articles from nearly all presenters during the symposium. It also contains additional articles, including contributions from attendees of the symposium.

All contributions are the issue are freely available on the journal’s website: https://nordiskmiljoratt.se/earlier-issues.html. Please find below popular science summaries of each contribution:

1. Marianne Dahlén and Victoria Enkvist, “Rights of Nature meets the Swedish Constitution”

Focusing on the Cementa and Girjas cases, this article investigates what the current Swedish constitutional protection of nature tells us about the possibilities for the recognition of nature’s rights. The resolution of these cases demonstrate how legal interpretations and political negotiations have led to environmental concerns being minimized.

2. Seth Epstein and Anton Andersen, “Contemplating Rights of Nature in Sweden: Democratic Legitimacy, Conflict, and Centralization of Power”

Based on interviews conducted by research assistant Anton Andersen, this article examines perceptions in Sweden of how the recognition of nature as a rights-bearing legal subject would conflict with the objectives identified in the U.N.’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda for “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.”

3. Claes Tängh Wrangel, “Dreaming of a Decolonial Language? The Limits of Posthuman Critique in the Anthropocene”

This article critiques the ways that scholars like Bruno Latour have distinguished Modernity from the Anthorpocene. It calls for greater care in how we think about the distinctions and similarities between these periods.

4. Love Rönnelid, “Rights critique and rights of nature – a guide for developing strategic awareness when attempting to protect nature through legal rights”

Rights of nature, like other attemps at changing how people act, relies on a rights-centric strategy. This article applies historical critiques of the limitations and drawbacks of this strategy to the rights of nature.

5. Maria Refors Legge, “The Symbolic Nature of Legal Rights”

This article draws parallels between challenges faced by proponents of nature’s rights

and children’s rights. It suggests that these challenges can lead to the passage of

legslation and recognition of rights that may be largely symbolic.

6. Jonas Hultin Rosenberg, “The Democratic Inclusion of Nature: Exploring the Categorical Extension of the All-Affected Principle”

This article considers how the All-Affected Principle could be applied to nature. It contends that this principle, which holds that all impacted by decisions within a political jurisdiction should be accorded political inclusion, could be stretched to include natural entities, including nonsentient organisms.

7. Lauren Strumos, “Religion, Nonreligion and Nature’s Rights: What’s the Connection?”

The rights of nature have sometimes been associated with a religious perspective. This article examines how nonreligion may also faciliate the recognition of nature’s rights by encouraging a turn awy from a dominion or stewardship model for relations between humans and nonhumans.

8. Andreas Brutemark, Maria Brandt and Daniel Schrire, “Reflections on nature experiences and knowledge shaping attitudes towards the rights of nature”

This article argues that to be effective, rights of nature needs to be paired with widespread public knowledge of ecosystems and humans’ impact on them. It particularly focuses on the impact of children’s exposure to nature.

9. Yaffa Epstein, José Vicente López-Bao, and Jeremy Bruskotter, “Most EU Residents Support Rights of Nature Laws”

This article makes use of the results of a survey conducted in the EU to argue that a sentiment in favor of the recognition of nature’s rights may be more widespread than generally thought. Although identifying the data’s limitations, the article nonetheless suggests that this public opinion could potentially support the enactment of RoN legislation within the EU.

10. Lina Langby, “What is valuable in human and non-human nature?”

This article argues that a philsophy which recognizes the intrinsic worth of nature may help to justify the recognition of rights for nature. It examines in particular the potential of panpsychism, which holds everything in reality to be fundamentally mental, conscious, experiencing, or subjective.

11. Fabianne Lenvin, “Balance of interests and the implementation of the rights of nature in Swedish law”

This contribution discusses the lack of clear guidelines to guide the balancing of interests in the environmental permitting process. Recognizing nature as a legal rightsholder could further complicate an already difficult process.

12. Pella Thiel, “Moral imagination for the rights of Nature: An Embassy of the Baltic Sea”

This article considers the potential for an Embassy of the Black Sea to contribute to the recognition of nature as a legal rightsholder and a shift in human identity towards belonging, responsibility, and care.

13. Michael Nausner, “Imagining Mutuality as Base for Rights of Nature: A Theological Perspective on Humanity’s Relation to the More-than-human World”

This article presents theological and religious perspectives on nature’s rights. It later turns to the matter of relations between humans and non-humans and highlights how theology can also inform understandings of interdependence between humans and non-humans.

Podcast Appearances

Victoria Enkvist has been a guest on English- and Swedish-language podcasts to speak about the Rights of Nature:

“Stewards or Siblings? Reshaping Human Relations with Nonhumans and Nature.” Lifestances podcast with Professor Lori G. Beaman, 7 February 2024

https://open.spotify.com/episode/45AHggWasOLkZbNKZcDpjM

“Mot en ny juridik – när nature får rättigheter.” Sverige Radio podcast Livet Vid 2.5 Grader, 6 January 2025

https://www.sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/mot-en-ny-juridik-nar-naturen-far-rattigheter