UDTR — Radar mondial des droits de la Nature

LEGAL PERSONHOOD AND THE RIGHTS OF NATURE: Bridging Relationality and State Law to Protect Sri Lankan Rivers from Pollution

Identification

Clé publique

doi:10.25949/30349714

Auteurs

Edirisinghe, Asanka Amitharansy

Année déclarée

2025

Langue déclarée

en · und

Type source

Dissertation

Première détection

2026-11-09T19:04:47.557729+00:00

Dernière observation des métadonnées

2026-11-10T16:58:51.477198+00:00

Dernière vérification HTTP

Non effectuée

Résumé documentaire — langue originale

River pollution is a critical problem in contemporary Sri Lanka, indicating a failure of the law to safeguard our rivers. After more than 400 years of colonial rule, current state-based river protection laws in Sri Lanka still predominantly reflect Western legal concepts that have attracted criticism for anthropocentric bias. By contrast, many local and Indigenous worldviews and legal systems in Sri Lanka embody profound relationships with rivers, making river pollution fundamentally antithetical to their understandings. The emerging global trends of legal personhood and the rights of nature aim to shift from anthropocentric legal principles in environmental protection towards the concept of ‘relationality’, which sees all things as connected. Notably, efforts to recognise legal personhood and the rights of nature in various jurisdictions draw inspiration from customary, religious, and Indigenous perspectives on nature. This thesis investigates the potential to integrate relational values into Sri Lanka’s Western-influenced legal framework for river protection. Through the black-letter approach, socio-legal research, and international and comparative research, the thesis draws on primary research conducted in Sri Lanka and lessons from international law and the comparative jurisdictions of Ecuador, New Zealand, India, and Bangladesh. It proposes a broader recognition of relationality in Sri Lanka’s river protection efforts by adopting legal personhood and the rights of nature, using the ‘River Person’ model. The thesis guides lawmakers by presenting the case for wider recognition of relational worldviews and pluralistic legal concepts in state-based river protection laws in Sri Lanka. It also makes a novel and original contribution to the existing body of knowledge, addressing a topic that has received little attention within the scholarly literature on Sri Lanka.

Identifiants

DOI

10.25949/30349714 · 10.25949/30349714.v1

OPENALEX

W7114912827

OPENAIRE

doi_dedup___::d8e3b2f6be154535643664221516447a

Repères documentaires

Famille documentaire

Thèse

Types déclarés par les sources

Dissertation · Thesis · dissertation

Juridictions étudiées — sources explicites

BD · EC · IN · LK · NZ

Entités naturelles mentionnées

Fleuve / rivière

Les mentions d’entités ne constituent pas une preuve de reconnaissance juridique. La juridiction étudiée est distincte du pays d’affiliation des auteurs.

Sources

DataCite · Document 1 · Document 2 · Document 3 · Document 4

OpenAIRE · Document 1 · Document 2

OpenAlex · Document 1 · Document 2 · Document 3 · Document 4

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.25949/30349714
• DOI · https://doi.org/10.25949/30349714.v1
• Document · https://dx.doi.org/10.25949/30349714.v1
• Document · https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/LEGAL_PERSONHOOD_AND_THE_RIGHTS_OF_NATURE_Bridging_Relationality_and_State_Law_to_Protect_Sri_Lankan_Rivers_from_Pollution/30349714
• Document · https://figshare.mq.edu.au/articles/thesis/LEGAL_PERSONHOOD_AND_THE_RIGHTS_OF_NATURE_Bridging_Relationality_and_State_Law_to_Protect_Sri_Lankan_Rivers_from_Pollution/30349714
• Document · https://figshare.mq.edu.au/articles/thesis/LEGAL_PERSONHOOD_AND_THE_RIGHTS_OF_NATURE_Bridging_Relationality_and_State_Law_to_Protect_Sri_Lankan_Rivers_from_Pollution/30349714/1
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7114912827

Statut documentaire

Validée documentairement

Bibliothèque