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NATURE’S LAWS: TRANSFORMING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

NATURE’S LAWS: TRANSFORMING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW. Ian Mason and Carine Nadal, Gaia Foundation . EARTH JURISPRUDENCE/ EARTH LAW. A PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND WAY OF LIVING THAT VALUES THE WELFARE OF THE WHOLE OF NATURE ABOVE THE WELFARE OF HER SUBJECTS . Core Principles. Wholeness Lawfulness

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NATURE’S LAWS: TRANSFORMING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

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  1. NATURE’S LAWS: TRANSFORMING ENVIRONMENTAL LAW Ian Mason and Carine Nadal, Gaia Foundation 

  2. EARTH JURISPRUDENCE/ EARTH LAW A PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND WAY OF LIVING THAT VALUES THE WELFARE OF THE WHOLE OF NATURE ABOVE THE WELFARE OF HER SUBJECTS

  3. Core Principles • Wholeness • Lawfulness • Duty of care • Rights of Nature • Reciprocity

  4. Core Principles • Mutual enhancement • Diversity • Commonality • Local community governance • Resilience

  5. Evolution Living wisdom and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities ‘The Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth… All things are connected’

  6. Thomas Berry Earth Community is a communion of subjects and not a collection of objects The Great Work 1999

  7. WILD LAW EARTH JURISPRUDENCE IN PRACTICE

  8. SYMPTOMS • Climate change/chaos and peak oil • 6th mass extinction of biodiversity • Deforestation • Social inequity • Lost wisdom, livelihoods and culture

  9. CAUSES Human centred mindset Resulting in Disregard for Nature’s laws Disconnection

  10. CAUSES Human centred laws and governance legitimise Nature as ‘property’

  11. What has this to do with lawyers? • Nearly all of this is done lawfully • The law legitimises destruction of Nature – • and then tries to make up • for it

  12. Property Law - Nature subordinated to Humans • Who owns the environment? • What does ownership imply?

  13. Bradford v Pickles [1895] AC 197 • Lord Halsbury: • ‘This is not a case where the state of mind of the person doing the act can affect the right. If it was a lawful act, however ill the motive be, he had a right to do it. If it was an unlawful act, however good the motive might be, he had no right to do it.’

  14. Ownership to relationship • Earth Jurisprudence / Wild law suggests that it is time to re-form a mutually enhancing relationship with Nature • And also • That law and lawyers have a part to play in doing so.

  15. ‘We cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it’ • Legal thinking puts human interests first • What happens if you change the centre? • Earth (or nature) centred thinking produces different laws.

  16. Public trust doctrine • Guardian ad litem • Precautionary principle • Duty of care / Ecocide/ Neighbour principle • Ombudsman for Future Generations • Biodiversity and wild land protection How?

  17. Duty of Care • “The rule that you are to love your neighbour becomes in law you must not injure your neighbour.” • Lord Atkin: Donoghue v Stevenson • Who then is our neighbour?

  18. UN World Charter for Nature 1982 “Every form of life is unique, warranting respect regardless of its worth to man, and to accord other organisms such recognition man must be guided by a moral code of action.”

  19. Declaration of Planetary Rights • "Not just human beings have rights, but the planet has rights," • President Morales • Polly Higgins

  20. Ecuador Constitution 2008 • Article 71– Nature or Pacha Mama, from which life reproduces and enfolds itself, has the right to the integral respect for its existence and the maintenance and regeneration of its vital cycles, structures, functions and evolutionary processes. • Every person, community, people or nationality can require that public authorities comply with nature rights.

  21. Shapleigh, Maine, USA • “Natural communities and ecosystems possess inalienable and fundamental rights to exist, flourish and naturally evolve within the town of Shapleigh.”

  22. Could it happen here? • Spain: Great Apes resolution 2008 • Swedish Environmental Code • Natural Environment & Rural Communities Act 2006

  23. INITIATIVES • Materials – e.g. WL book, Gaia – UKELA WL Report, media, EJ Resource Centre • Workshops – e.g. UKELA WL weekends, Schumacher College, Australian, Bolivia’s alternative Peoples Conference • Eco-literacy –e.g.EJ syllabus, WL education group • Wild laws – e.g. Ecuadorian Constitution, Declaration for Planetary Rights, crime of Ecocide • Community –e.g. Gaia’s partners, Transition Town

  24. You can join in ..... Wild law Network UKELA Wild Law Group Gaia Evenings Eco-literacy/living Research opportunities

  25. Thank you for participating www.gaiafoundation.org

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