New Legal Perspectives: The Synergy of Law and Science to Protect the Rights of Nature
September 14, 2023 Agenda
[Register for the conference at https://www.law.msu.edu/Rights_of_Nature/register.php?fbclid=IwAR1VrB69MUd6bs6FTcZHUFoT9_YrgXrbbYMaesRZyX5CLEc6lv1BCYm2Qd0].
8:30 – Registration (coffee and pastries available)
9:00 – Welcome
9:15 – 10:45 Panel One [45 minutes per speaker – 30 minutes for presentation and 15 minutes for questions]
Moderator: Rebecca Wisch
Associate Editor, Animal Legal & Historical Center
Panelist 1: Angie Vega
Animal Law Fellow, Michigan State University Animal Law Program
Presentation: Rights of Nature: Bridging the gap with law to protect the environment
Panelist 2: Dr. Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske
Associate Professor of Spatial and Community Ecology at the Department of Integrative Biology and the Director of the Institute for Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution, and Macrosystems, Michigan State University
Presentation: Rights of Nature in the context of climate change and biodiversity
10:45 - 11:00 Break (coffee, tea, and cookies)
11:00 – 12:30 - Panel Two
Moderator: Emily Giedzinski
J.D. Candidate at Michigan State University
Panelist 3: Dr. Carlos Contreras
Visiting Fellow, Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program, Harvard Law School
Presentation: From Ecosystems to Animals: Examining Three Watershed Cases and Bridging the Rights of Nature and its Inhabitants
Panelist 4: Dr. Jerry Urquhart
Associate Professor, Lyman Briggs College and Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
Presentation: Biodiversity and the Rights of Nature – Impressions of a Tropical Biologist
12:30 – 1:15 Vegan Mexican Lunch from Taqueria el Chaparrito
1:15 2:45 – Panel Three
Moderator: Anne M. Choike
Associate Clinical Professor; Director of the Equitable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Law Clinic, Michigan State University
Panelist 5: Maria Mercedes Sanchez
Coordinator of the Harmony with Nature Program at the United Nations
Presentation: The United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme: A Non-Anthropocentric Paradigm
Panelist 6: Dr. Nichole Keway Biber
Tribal Citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Leader of the Wolf/Wildlife Preservation Team of the Anishinabek Caucus in Michigan
Presentation: Gidanawendimin: We are All Related
2:45- 3:00 Break (coffee, tea, and Sparty cookies)
3:00 – 4:30 – Panel Four
Moderator: Lauren Duguid
J.D. Candidate & President, MSU Student Animal Legal Defense Fund Chapter
Panelist 7: Macarena Montes
Visiting Fellow, Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program, Harvard Law School
Presentation: Animal Rights and the Rights of Nature: The Case of Woolly Monkey Estrellita
Panelist 8: David Favre
Professor of Property Law, Animal Law, and International Environmental Law, Michigan State University
Presentation: Can Nature Have Legal Rights?
4:30- Final remarks
Angie Vega’s Bio:
Angie Vega is an attorney with a degree from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cali and a certified conciliator in Colombia, where she is originally from. Angie has an LL.M. in the American Legal System from Michigan State University and is the current MSU Animal Law Fellow. Her legal research focuses on companion animal damages, animal law in Latin America, Animal Rights, and the Rights of Nature. Angie has published law review articles on bullfighting and recovery of damages in companion animal cases. She is also a contributing editor of the Latin American materials of the Animal Legal and Historical Center, where she has also written articles on various topics, including legal damages, veterinary malpractice, and the status of animal law in many countries within Latin America.
Abstracts:
Angie Vega
Rights of Nature: Bridging the gap with law to protect the environment
While environmental law was initially conceived to promote the sustainable use of the planet to mitigate environmental damage, it has struggled to curb rising temperatures, species extinction, and deforestation driven by economic interests. The Rights of Nature is a novel concept gaining momentum around the world. It comes to life as a new legal strategy to stop further environmental damage by protecting nature based on its intrinsic value and by reevaluating the relationship between humans and the environment. This presentation dives into initial complex questions surrounding critical issues such as the legal definition of nature, practical implementation, and the limits and triggers of these rights, all of which must be addressed in order for the movement to succeed.
Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske
Rights of Nature in the context of climate change and biodiversity
Abstract:
The climate and biodiversity crises are inextricably linked. Climate change and other global changes like habitat loss are impacting the composition and function of all ecological systems, from organisms to ecosystems. Intact biodiversity and functioning of these ecological systems can buffer against the impacts of climate change and provide numerous ecosystem services to humans as well. Therefore, it is essential to protect and restore nature on Earth, inclusive of its biological and physical components and their interactions. Across biological scales—from individuals, species, populations, communities, and ecosystems—and across spatial and temporal scales, life on Earth depends on essential interactions among biological and physical components to be able to exist and function properly. These interactions include species interactions like competition for food and space, predation, and pollination, and they include biophysical feedback among biota and physical components like nutrient cycling or the formation of coastal dunes. Both observational data and climate change experiments show that climate change alters biotic interactions, biodiversity, and ecological functions. With the rapid pace of climate change, Nature needs time and space to be able to adapt and evolve in order to continue to function properly. In this era of rapid global change, it is essential to conserve and restore biodiversity and its interactions with physical features and processes. Only then will we ensure the sustained functioning of ecological systems on Earth.
Carlos Contreras
From Ecosystems to Animals: Examining Three Watershed Cases and Bridging the Rights of Nature and its Inhabitants
Abstract:
Our evolving relationship with nature signifies more than just heightened awareness. We're transitioning towards recognizing not only the rights of nature but also redefining our perceptions regarding the rights of animals within these ecosystems. This presentation will scrutinize three transformative cases: the Colombian Amazon and the Atrato River in Colombia, and the Mar Menor in Spain. These instances exemplify a world where nature is acknowledged as a bearer of rights. As advocates for animal rights, we pose a crucial question: If these ecosystems have rights, shouldn't the animals residing within them be inherently entitled to similar rights?
Gerald R. Urquhart
Biodiversity and the Rights of Nature – Impressions of a Tropical Biologist
Abstract:
The rise in western environmental awareness and desire to protect nature that blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s led to the growth of conservation ethics, animal rights, and nature worship. Environmentalism helped birth the concept of biodiversity that emerged among scientists in subsequent decades, which led to an increased recognition of the many components of the “natural world” in ecosystems. Yet preceding these “advances” in western thought were myriad systems of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that valued the organisms that contribute to biodiversity and, in some instances, considered those organisms to be sentient. Thus, it is unsurprising that several of the locations at the forefront of the “rights of nature” movement are areas where TEK is less eroded and holders of such knowledge have found a voice in governance. In this presentation, I will draw from experiences in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, and South Africa to examine the roles of western knowledge systems and TEK in giving rights to nature and using those rights in the protection of biodiversity.
Maria Mercedes Sanchez
The United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme: A Non-Anthropocentric Paradigm
Abstract:
In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day and further adopted its first resolution on Harmony with Nature. To date, the General Assembly has adopted 14 resolutions on Harmony with Nature, and the Secretary-General has published 12 reports on Harmony with Nature. These documents contain different perspectives regarding the construction of a new, non-anthropocentric paradigm, highlighting that the loss of biodiversity, desertification, climate change, and the disruption of a number of natural cycles are among the costs of our disregard for Nature and the integrity of its ecosystems and life-supporting processes. This presentation examines the journey towards an Earth-centered paradigm and highlights initiatives taking place worldwide to bring about a paradigm shift.
Nichole Keway Biber
Gidanawendimin: We are All Related
Abstract:
At the core of Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy cultural teachings, the central trickster/hero figure Nanboozhoo was told to travel with Ma'iingan, the wolf, on a journey of companionship with the instruction to give name to all they encountered. The significance of this foundational worldview is ongoing, as Indigenous nations across Turtle Island (North American continent) and beyond resist the entrenched vilification of wolves and politicized pressures to hunt this keystone species. This disrespect is emblematic of an extractive and dominion mindset that is distinctly at odds with the lessons of right relationship provided by Ma'iingan. This tension raises fundamental questions about treaty rights, religious freedom, and how the rights of wildlife are ultimately inseparable from tribal sovereignty.
Macarena Montes
Animal Rights and the Rights of Nature: The Case of Woolly Monkey Estrellita
Abstract:
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador established binding jurisprudence on animal rights, recognizing individual animals as rights holders protected by the constitutional rights of nature in the groundbreaking judgment on Estrellita, the woolly monkey, in January 2022. The Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School and the Nonhuman Rights Project co-drafted an amicus curiae, which had a significant role in the Court’s ruling, moving the debate beyond the traditional focus on only safeguarding animal species. The presentation examines the arguments presented in this brief, the main arguments put forth by the Court, and some positive effects the judgment has had to date in Ecuador.
David Favre
Can Nature Have Legal Rights?
Abstract:
In determining whether Nature can have rights, the broad sweep of the word “Nature” must be considered first. Is it different from Ecology, global ecology? What happened to the modifier “Mother” Nature? Consider the primary question of who gets to define the word. What is the history of the United States in approaching these issues? The Rights of Nature as a concept has appeared on the international stage. What is the legal context that it faces? Should we push toward a global Secretariat to protect the rights of Nature?