Neha Navaneeth, School of Law, Christ Deemed to be University
ABSTRACT
Similar to the concept of fundamental rights for human beings, rights of nature is a legal and jurisprudential theory that analyses inherent rights for the ecosystems and its species. This concept is a kind of ecological governance that respects and prioritises nature's right to thrive in the anthropocentric world we live in. It also establishes a number of subsidiary rights, including the right to restoration, the right to natural processes, and the right for ecosystems to function without intervention. The basic foundation principle on which this concept finds its roots is the need for a fundamental shift in the way we view environmental law and nature as such; that is, placing and holding the needs of nature before human needs. “Rights of nature” challenges the twentieth-century laws, which are based on a faulty view that says that nature is a "resource" that must be owned, utilised, and exploited. Paying fines for pollution or not renewing the emission test certificate or in other rare cases stopping the advancement of an ecologically damaging project are only minimal curbs that the current environmental law protects. Therefore, nature must be provided with legal personhood and protectors so that its rights are actually defended in the court of law. This will ensure that the laws are not anthropocentric in nature. But granting personhood to nature does in fact have multiple hurdles.
The author in this paper will discuss what exactly the meaning of rights of nature is, trace its evolution to understand its significance and also talk about the complications that it will result in. In the course of this paper, the author will bring in landmark case(s) which have popularised the theory of rights of nature as something that is the need of the hour as well.
Keywords: Rights of nature, anthropocentric, environmental law, personhood of nature, hurdles.
