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When a River Becomes a Person

Identification

Public canonical key
doi:10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610
Authors
Matthias Kramm
Reported year
2020
Reported language
en
Source type
article
First detected
2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00
Last metadata observation
2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00
Last HTTP verification
Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Utrecht University

Reported affiliation countries

NL

Documentary abstract — original language

In March 2017, the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand was the first river to officially receive the status of a legal person. This legal personhood is based on the ontological understanding of the river as an indivisible and living whole and as the spiritual ancestor of the Whanganui Iwi (a Māori tribe). In this paper, I analyse the Te Awa Tupua Act in which the Whanganui River is declared a legal person and suggest to supplement the document with a cross-cultural account of the Whanganui River’s wellbeing and with two normative principles that can help to effectively protect the river. First, I distinguish between a pre-political, a legal, and an institutional level within the Te Awa Tupua Act. I then identify the normative issues at stake in conceptualising and protecting the river’s wellbeing. Subsequently, I discuss how the capability approach would need to be modified in order to incorporate the Whanganui River’s wellbeing in terms of functionings. In the final section, I suggest two duties that could supplement the normative framework of the Te Awa Tupua Act. The paper concludes with a policy recommendation.

Identifiers

OPENALEX
W3047047352
DOI
10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610
HANDLE
10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610

Documentary context

Documentary family
Scholarship
Source-reported types
article
Natural entities mentioned
River

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2 · Record 3

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

  • openalex:w1500164099 · CITES
  • openalex:w1534635748 · CITES
  • openalex:w1542356730 · CITES
  • openalex:w2005040992 · CITES
  • openalex:w2008727260 · CITES
  • openalex:w2021883551 · CITES
  • openalex:w2055337389 · CITES
  • openalex:w2083437963 · CITES
  • openalex:w2086522378 · CITES
  • openalex:w2270297293 · CITES
  • openalex:w2298710310 · CITES
  • openalex:w2340879996 · CITES
  • openalex:w2343200725 · CITES
  • openalex:w2467673967 · CITES
  • openalex:w2476248479 · CITES
  • openalex:w2481313456 · CITES
  • openalex:w2488167377 · CITES
  • Land and rivers can own themselves · CITES
  • openalex:w2767200912 · CITES
  • openalex:w2769436221 · CITES

41 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary field provenance

Source-backed values and values with unresolved provenance are kept separately. Bibliographic provenance validates no legal claim.

Title
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Publication
Documentary source reported
Authors
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Document type
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Jurisdiction
Not recorded
Court
Not recorded
Issuing authority
Not recorded
Publisher
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DOI
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ISBN
Not recorded
Official identifier
Not recorded
Source URL
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Source-reported status
Not recorded
Amendment / repeal
Not recorded

Cite this reference

Matthias Kramm. When a River Becomes a Person. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610

JSON · CSL-JSON · BibTeX · RIS · CSV · JSON-LD ·

APA, Chicago, ISO 690: bibliographic formats using available fields. OSCOLA / Bluebook: structured data only; full legal citation compliance is not claimed without verification of required elements.

APA
Matthias Kramm. (2020). When a River Becomes a Person. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610
Chicago
Matthias Kramm. When a River Becomes a Person. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610
ISO 690
Matthias Kramm. When a River Becomes a Person. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610

UDTR Global Rights of Nature Legal Library. When a River Becomes a Person. Documentary record: https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-aacdbb87b15011f54a8727a86dfd3c79/ · Last HTTP verification: not performed

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Field provenance and record version

Version 5b8089b007c0c9b2 · udtr-reference-1.1.2

Title
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00
Authors
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00
Year
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00
Identifiers
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00
Source URL
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00

History tracks record metadata and does not certify the state of the law.

4a721759ea0ec212 · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00

464225af4d68e0e9 · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00

d7fafca19ced96a4 · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00

5b8089b007c0c9b2 · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.910654+00:00

Frozen-version metadata

Research dossiers and documentary relations

Utrecht University

Matthias Kramm

Source roles

Discovery source · https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610

Discovery source · https://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/19452829.2020.1801610

Discovery source · https://openalex.org/W3047047352

An authority link alone does not verify a legal claim. Abstracts and full texts remain subject to their source terms.

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.

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