Who Needs Rights of Nature?

 
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What entities can be considered as legal rights holders? Abstract bodies, like trusts and firms, are established subjects capable of holding rights. But what about Nature? Law now offers very different concepts to frame Nature, concepts that are constructive and open to selection: the law can choose between them to solve different social, economic, or ecological problems. What’s more, the questions of who or what can be recognized as a legal person depends on cultural, social, and economic interests. In this first piece, Jens Kersten outlines the five possible ways of framing Nature that currently exist within our legal system.

DOI: doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8209