Facing Criticism

The idea of giving rights to nature has been the subject of controversy since its inception. In recent years, the escalating environmental crises have fueled these debates worldwide but notably in the liberal West, where rights of nature are now widely discussed. The fact that rights of nature have only been legally implemented in the past 15 years, and only in a few states, shows how much, and how strong, resistance the concept has encountered. The West in particular has proven to be extremely unresponsive to the idea. The chapter aims to comprehensively address and dispel common legal criticisms of the concept. It first seeks to analyze whether law, and legal rights in particular, are a suitable and conducive means for a reform of the human-nature relationship. On that basis, it proceeds to analyze whether a rights-based approach is detrimental to the human-nature relationship, e.g. by conveying Western narratives such as individualism, egoism and suppression, by anthropomorphizing nature, regulating nature or even downgrading nature’s status. Finally, the chapter also addresses the fear that rights of nature could downgrade the human legal status.