—and That Humans Are Required to Protect It.
The judge invoked the power of the government to act as a guardian for those who cannot care for themselves.
By Katie Surma in Inside Climate News on May 4, 2022.
The highest court in one of India’s 28 states ruled last month that “Mother Nature” has the same legal status as a human being, which includes “all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person.”
The decision from Madras High Court, located in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu, also said that the natural environment is part of the human right to life, and that humans have an environmental duty to future generations.
“The past generations have handed over the ‘Mother Earth’ to us in its pristine glory and we are morally bound to hand over the same Mother Earth to the next generation,” Justice S. Srimathy said in a 23-page opinion.
The case is the latest in a series of so-called “rights of nature” laws and court rulings that aim to give ecosystems, animals and elements of the natural world legal rights similar to those of humans, corporations and trusts. Countries including Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama and New Zealand have enacted variations of rights of nature laws, as have over 30 communities and local governments within the United States. Typically, legal rights, such as the right to exist and to regenerate, afford nature a higher degree of protection compared to conventional environmental laws…
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