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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Rights of Nature in Practice: A Case Study on the Impacts of the Colombian Atrato River Decision
Contributor:
Wesche, Philipp
Published:
Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021
Published in:
Journal of Environmental Law, 33 (2021) 3, Seite 531-555
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1093/jel/eqab021
ISSN:
0952-8873;
1464-374X
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
Abstract In recent years, several countries have adopted a new legal approach to address ecological damages by granting fundamental rights to non-human natural entities. Yet, little is known about the actual impacts of this new constitutionalism of nature on environmental protection. This article seeks to better understand these impacts by presenting a case study of the Colombian Atrato River decision. Based on implementation reports and qualitative interviews with the river’s legal guardians and state officials, it argues that rights of nature can be an important impetus for change. However, at least in Colombia, their impacts relate less to legal standing of natural entities, as presumed in the literature, but rather to improvements in policymaking. To transform complex ecological crises in weak governance areas, strengthening local state institutions and integral environmental policies are more important than rights of nature. But they can play a role in this regard.