UDTR — Radar mondial des droits de la Nature

Granting Legal Personhood to Nature in the European Union: Contemplating a Legal (R)evolution to Avoid an Ecological Collapse? (Part 1)

Identification

Clé publique

doi:10.1163/18760104-01503005

Auteurs

Hendrik Schoukens

Année déclarée

2018

Langue déclarée

en

Type source

article

Première détection

2026-11-09T19:04:47.556054+00:00

Dernière observation des métadonnées

2026-11-09T19:06:42.206307+00:00

Dernière vérification HTTP

Non effectuée

Institutions déclarées par la source

Ghent University

Pays d’affiliation déclarés

BE

Résumé documentaire — langue originale

Over the past decade, the debate on Rights of Nature as a promising novel discourse within the ever-changing context of environmental governance has gained considerable traction. An increasing number of countries, amongst whom New Zealand and Ecuador, has moved to explicitly grant legal personhood to nature, with some national courts following suit. Underlying this trend is the need to correct the prevailing instrumentalist approach to nature, which sees nature merely as an object. For now, the idea of giving certain procedural and substantive rights to nature has passed relatively unnoticed in the European Union ( eu ), which prides itself over its set of progressive environmental directives and regulations. This paper, which is published in two parts, posits that a rights-based approach to nature might be relevant for the eu as well, seeing that anthropocentric frames are still permeating many of the eu ’s environmental strategies. Having conducted an in-depth case-law analysis of a string of relevant decisions of the Court of Justice of the eu as regards the procedural and substantive underpinnings of Rights of Nature, it is argued that some of the most well-known eu environmental directives, such as the Habitats Directive and the Water Framework Directive, can effectively be used as a catalyst on a path towards a more ecocentric approach to eu environmental governance. That said, the lack of standing for nature in its own right before eu courts, which is at the forefront of the first part of this article, remains one of the most prominent legal obstacles on the road towards a more rights-based approach to nature conservation. In the remainder of this article, it is argued that introducing a rights-based approach through the adoption of a new directive might sound appealing yet would ultimately be unable to comprehensively implement the rationale underpinning Rights of Nature. Seeing that a reform of the eu Treaties in light of a more rights-based approach towards nature appears unlikely for now, the first, concrete manifestations of nature’s rights in the eu will probably be seen at Member States’ level.

Identifiants

DOI

10.1163/18760104-01503005

OPENALEX

W4231368239

OPENAIRE

doi_________::fb75f0250c686ab1b823ac73b3e794f7

Repères documentaires

Famille documentaire

Doctrine

Types déclarés par les sources

Article · article

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

Sources

OpenAIRE · Document 1

OpenAlex · Document 1 · Document 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1163/18760104-01503005
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W4231368239

Relations bibliographiques documentées

Références et liens déclarés par les sources ; ils ne constituent pas une preuve juridique ni une qualification UGLC. Affichage limité à 20 références sortantes.

• The Problem of Enforcing Nature's Rights under Ecuador's Constitution: Why the 2008 Environmental Amendments Have No Bite · CITES
• openalex:w2951606491 · CITES
• openalex:w4249258143 · CITES
• openalex:w4396910894 · CITES
• openalex:w4404630563 · CITES

8 références entrantes au sein du corpus détecté

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