Should rights be given to rivers?

“Is a River Alive?” by Robert Macfarlane was reviewed by journalist Daniel Herborn.

“Macfarlane frames the legal personhood of rivers as an extension of the Rights of Nature movement and, more broadly, a contemporary evolution of the rights revolution,” Mr Herborn wrote.

“Just as nation-states gradually extended rights to once-marginalised human beings, like women and people of colour, legislatures have increasingly recognised natural elements as intrinsically valuable and worthy of legal protection. The novel legal concept of granting rivers personhood could be the next step in this progression, he argues.”

The reviewer noted that Aotearoa New Zealand became the first country to legislate this concept, granting legal personhood to the Whanganui River in 2017.

“After touching on that landmark case, Macfarlane travels to three significant rivers around the world, contrasting two nations that have moved to protect their waterways through legal personhood (Ecuador and Canada) with one that hasn’t.”

Mr Herborn stated that the book makes these proposals seem less like radical ideas and more like measures grounded in common sense.

“After all, we already rely on entrenched legal fictions, such as giving corporations legal personhood to sue and be sued. Further, the legal status quo for rivers has hardly done a stellar job in ensuring their survival.”

But Mr Herborn noted that “not all legal experts are as enthused about this development as Macfarlane – for instance, scholars from the University of Melbourne have warned that granting rivers legal personhood could be counterproductive and divisive”.

“While Macfarlane conveys great optimism about the possibilities of legal personhood for rivers, he also acknowledges some of the counterarguments and challenges around the idea. He outlines how, without robust enforcement, these developments risk being merely symbolic at best or, at worst, greenwashing. 

“He also notes another challenge will be integrating indigenous perspectives within legal systems that are often based on very different foundational values. For instance, in the case of the Whanganui River, there were conceptual difficulties reconciling the spiritual and social notion of personhood with the more abstract view of personhood in Western law.”

FULL STORY

We gave corporations rights – why not rivers? (By Daniel Herborn/Eureka Street)