In 2008, Ecuador was the first country in the world to introduce three revolutionary provisions in its new Constitution, which recognised Nature (or Pacha Mama) as a legal subject withconstitutionally protected rights. Since then, the number of legal initiatives–constitutional provisions, legislated acts, judicial decisions, and a host of semi- and quasi- legal initiatives – has grown exponentially, now spanning well over 40 different jurisdictions, including the international sphere.
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd, aptly called this the fastest growing legal movement of the twenty-first century.
The emergence of rights of Nature provisions and related initiatives, however, reveals a much deeper shift within legal thought than simply increasing the scope of legal subjectivity to include the more-than-human world within its purview. It represents, in fact, a journey toward a veritable ecological jurisprudence, a theory and practice of law that is informed by, and contends with, our collective growing (and perhapsreawakened) ecological awareness.
About Dr Alessandro Pelizzon
Dr Alessandro Pelizzon completed his LLB/LLM at the University of Turin in Italy, specializing in comparative law and legal anthropology with a field research project conducted in theAndes. His Doctoral research, conducted at the University of Wollongong, focused on native title and legal pluralism in the Illawarra region. Alessandro has been exploring the emerging discourse on rights of nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception, with a particular focus on the intersection between this emerging discourse and different legal ontologies.His most recent book, titled Ecological Jurisprudence: The Law of Nature and the Nature of Law and published in open access format by Springer, captures his two decades of work in the field.
Alessandro is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Society at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, as well as a co-founder and an Executive Committee Memberof the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature Programme.
Alessandro’s main areas of research are legal anthropology, legal theory, comparative law, ecological jurisprudence, constitutional law, sovereignty, Indigenous rights, andUniversity governance.