Strengthening Environmental Protection (HL IB Environmental Systems & Societies (ESS))

Legal Personhood for Environmental Protection

• Legal personhood refers to entities, such as individuals or corporations, which are recognised as having legal rights and responsibilities, just like a person

• Recently, there have been an increasing number of laws granting legal personhood to natural entities, such as rivers, forests, mountains or even whole ecosystems

  • This improves the environmental protection of these natural entities

  • For example, in 2017, the High Court of Uttarakhand in India granted legal personhood to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, declaring them "living entities" to ensure their protection and conservation

Benefits of granting legal personhood to natural entities

• Stronger environmental protection:

  • Granting legal personhood to natural entities gives them the legal standing to advocate for their own protection

  • This can lead to stronger legal safeguards to protect natural entities from damaging human activities

• Similarity to corporate personhood:

  • The concept of legal personhood for natural entities is like the established practice of granting legal personhood to corporations, which allows them to own property, enter contracts and sue or be sued in court

• Alignment with Indigenous knowledge systems:

  • Many Indigenous cultures see nature as interconnected and sentient, with no distinction between humans and the environment

  • Granting legal personhood to natural entities respects these views and recognises the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems

• Environmental value systems:

  • Legal personhood of natural entities follows the ecocentric (nature-centred) approach by recognising the intrinsic value of nature beyond its benefit to humans

• Rights-based ethics:

  • This approach emphasises the inherent rights of all beings to exist and flourish