Exploring Earth Laws: Rights of Nature, Natural Personhood and Innovative Local Laws to Protect the Environment
Evening Seminar, Friday 16th March 2018, 6pm-7.30pm
Katoomba Leura Community Centre, 81-83 Katoomba Street, Katoomba, Blue Mountains
Join us for a fascinating evening of discussions, exploring different legal tools that can help us better protect the living world.
Climate change, biodiversity loss and the global ecological crisis are forcing many people to rethink the legal, economic and governance structures underpinning contemporary industrial societies. People around the world are exploring innovative ways to use the law to better support the health of the living world.
One area receiving growing attention is the use of western legal mechanisms, such as legal personhood and ‘Rights of Nature’, to shift the legal status of nature from human property, to subjects of the law. These legal approaches are seen by many as a way for human centred western laws to be transformed towards Earth centred law and governance. ‘Rights of Nature’ laws now operate in Ecuador, Bolivia and the USA, and legal personhood laws and cases have emerged in New Zealand, India and Colombia. In Australia and the USA, the creation of ‘environmental water managers’ in domestic law has seen legal rights to water allocated to rivers and wetlands.
The National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Dr Michelle Maloney, will give a 40 minute overview of these new legal developments, and what they might mean in the context of protecting the precious natural environment of the Blue Mountains. Join us for
insights into these innovative legal developments and for a detailed discussions about how such approaches could be used in Australia.
REGISTER TO ATTEND
This seminar is free, but bookings are essential. Please book your place by registering online:
https://www.trybooking.com/UKDO
MORE INFORMATION
Email: aela@earthlaws.org.au
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr Michelle Maloney (BA/LLB ANU, PhD Griffith Law School) is the Co-Founder and National Convenor of AELA. AELA advocates for Earth centred law, governance and economics. Michelle has 30 years experience designing climate change, social justice and ecological justice projects in Australia, the US, UK and Indonesia. She leads multi-disciplinary teams within AELA and is responsible for the development and implementation of AELA’s work.
