RIGHTS OF NATURE AND ACCESS TO INTERNATIONAL JURISDICTION: AN EUROPEAN AND LATIN-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE

In 2008, as the first and only country in the world, Ecuador recognized rights of nature in its constitution, and in doing so recognised nature itself as a legal subject (Villaviciencio y Kotzé, 2018). This event marked the starting point of a global discussion regarding rights of nature; even though the academic discourse around this issue had already been going on for decades (Stone, 1972). In the following years, on the national level’s nature (or rather parts of it) has been accorded as legal subject several times,3 for example in 2016 the Atrato River by the Colombian Constitutional Court4 or in 2017 the Ganga (or Ganges) and Yamuna Rivers by the Indian High Court of Uttarakhand. In the same year, New Zealand recognised the Whanganui River as legal subject (Te Awa, 2014).