‘Rights of nature’ have entered legal discourse, and practical examples of national recognition of ‘nature’ as a legal entity and the establishment of original ‘rights of nature’ are multiplying worldwide: In 2008, for example, Ecuador was one of the first countries to recognise ‘nature’ as a legal entity and to grant it its own subjective rights that can be enforced by anyone. Other countries such as Colombia, New Zealand and Bangladesh soon followed suit, and in 2022 Spain became the first country in Europe to recognise the ‘Mar Menor’, a saltwater lagoon in eastern Spain, as a legal entity. In the examples mentioned above, the recognition of non-human entities as legal persons and the granting of subjective rights took place in different ways, sometimes by law and sometimes by court ruling. Camilla Haake, PostDoc at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights, highlights in her article – published in the ‘Zeitschrift für Umweltrecht’ – the possibilities offered by judicial development of the law in establishing legal subjectivity and deriving subjective rights for nature. Starting point is two judgements. Her article is based on two judgments of the Erfurt Regional Court, which are the subject of much (controversial) debate, particularly in Germany, and which attempted to derive ‘rights of nature’ from the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The article is available via Beck-online here.