Ecological Immersion Academy 2020: The Rights of Nature

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Ecological Immersion Academy 2020

The Rights of Nature

Each year the Center for Earth Jurisprudence holds an Ecological Immersion Academy combining legal education with ecologically immersive activities. This Academy seeks to reestablish those connections human have with the natural world to better understand what we are advocating for. In Week One Center for Earth Jurisprudence Director Margaret Stewart provided an overview of the legal philosophy known as the Rights of Nature.

Recommended Readings

Boyd, David R., The Rights of Nature: A Legal Revolution That Could Save the World, Introduction xxi-xxxvi (2017).

Center for Earth Jurisprudence, An Introduction to Earth Jurisprudence: Guiding Principles and Wild Law Possibilities, 1-45.

Stone, Christopher D., Should Trees Have Standing? And Other Essays on Law, Morals, and the Environment, 1-48 (1996)

Koons, Judith. At The Tipping Point: Defining an Earth Jurisprudence for Social and Ecological Justice, 58 Loy. L. Rev. 362-383 (2012).

MacPherson, Elizabeth, et.al., Constitutional Law, Ecosystems, and Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: Biocultural Rights and Legal Subjects, Transnational Environmental Law, 1-20, Cambridge University Press (2020).


In Week Two Stacey Gordon Sterling, Animal Law Program Director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund provided an overview of Animal Law.

Animal Rights Additional Readings Compiled by Stacey Gordon Sterling

What Can Animal Law Learn from Environmental Law (2d ed., Randall S. Abate ed., 2020).

Charlotte E. Blattner, The Recognition of Animal Sentience by Law, 9 J. Animal Ethics 121 (2019).

Karen Bradshaw, Animal Property Rights, 89 U. Colo. L. Rev. 809 (2018).

Maneesha Dekha, Unsettling Anthropocentric Legal Systems: Reconciliation, Indigenous Laws, and Animal Personhood, 41 J. Intercultural Studies 77 (2020).

David Favre, Living Property: A New Status for Animals Within the Legal System, 93 Marquette L. Rev. 1021 (2010).

Nicole Pallotta, Islamabad High Court Holds that Animals Have Legal Rights, ALDF (Oct. 2, 2020), https://aldf.org/article/islamabad-high-court-holds-that-animals-have-legal-rights/ (contains like to the court’s opinion).

Yon Soo Park & Benjamin Valentino, Animals Are People Too: Explaining Variation in Respect for Animal Rights, 41 Human Rights Q. 39 (2019)

Laurence H. Tribe, Ten Lessons Our Constitutional Experience Can Teach Us About the Puzzle of Animal Rights: The Work of Steven M. Wise, 7 Animal L. 1 (2001).


In Week Three Grant Wilson from the Earth Law Center provided an overview of Ecosystem Rights.

Grant Wilson, Murky Waters: Ambiguous International Law for Ocean Fertilization and Other Geoengineering, 49(3) TEX. INT’LL.J. 507 (2014).

Grant Wilson, Deepwater Horizon and the Law of the Sea: Was the Cure Worse than the Disease?, 41 B.C. ENVTL. AFF.L. REV. 63 (2014).

Grant Wilson, Minimizing Global Catastrophic and Existential Risks from Emerging Technologies through InternationalLaw, 31 VA. ENVTL. L.J. 307 (2013).

Chris Wold, Grant Wilson, and Sarah Foroshani, Leveraging Climate Change Benefits Through the World TradeOrganization: Are Fossil Fuel Subsidies Actionable?, 43 GEO. J. INT'LL. 635-694 (2012).


In Week Four, Professor Nadia Ahmad of Barry University School of Law presented on Environmental Justice.