A thought-provoking conversation unfolded at the “Anti-Democratic Rights of Nature” hosted on Wednesday by the University of Houston Law Center’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Center. The central question: Should the rights of organism and ecosystems — like marshes or streams and the creatures living there — hold legal rights that may supersede human development and use?
The discussion featured guest speaker Noah M. Sachs, professor of law at the University of Richmond School of Law and director of the Robert R. Merhige Jr. Center for Environmental Studies. Sachs shared research from his latest article published in the Georgetown Environmental Law Review, offering a critical lens on the Rights of Nature movement.
“If the political program they’re offering is that democracies can only operate to the extent that they respect and do not infringe on the rights of nature, my conclusion was then they could barely operate at all,” Sachs said. “Because almost every law, almost every democratic initiative, almost every political program has some impact on the natural world.”
Sachs described the Rights of Nature movement as a global surge recognizing the legal rights of ecosystems and encompassing everything from rivers to tiny aquatic lifeforms. While this movement has gained traction, with nearly 50 U.S. cities and towns enacting nature-protective ordinances, he argued that the legal track record is shaky.
“None of these ordinances, to my knowledge, have ever been enforced successfully against anyone to actually protect the environment,” Sachs said, adding that at least six were overturned due to constitutional or procedural issues.
He further argued that granting rights to all living beings would grant immense power to the courts and weaken the effectiveness of institutions trying to solve social and environmental problems.
The webinar underscored the growing tension between environmental preservation and human development. While the Rights of Nature aims to redefine environmental protection, Sachs warned it may be a misguided path, raising questions about how, or whether, balance can ever truly be achieved.
The event was co-moderated by Qaraman Hasan, an EENR research scholar who teaches international environmental law, and UHLC Professor Terry Hester, co-director of the EENR Center.
For more information about the UH Law Center’s Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Center, visit https://www.law.uh.edu/eenrcenter/
Original source can be found here.