Phillip Adams interviews Peter Burdon and Mari Margil on ABC’s LateNightLive. The discussion on Earth Jurisprudence was triggered by the recent Rights of Nature case awarding damages to the Vilcabamba River.
Mari Margil talks about how earlier this year, a river in Ecuador won a court case. M The Vilcabamba River was the plaintiff in a case brought against the Provincial Government of Loja. Damage was being caused to the river by the widening of a highway beside it. This was the first test of Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution, which outlines the Rights of Nature. It was welcome news to the burgeoning worldwide movement for the Rights of Nature, enacted through ‘Wild law’, or ‘Earth Jurisprudence’. Mari shares how Alberto Acosta, head of the Ecuador’s 2008 Constitutional Committee, stated that “Nature is a slave” and therefore had no standing which to the adoption of Rights of Nature in Ecuador. Mari and Peter talk about the movement that is occurring at the community level in the US and Australia and the implications of emerging community bills of rights and rights of nature.
Peter is a Lecturer at the Adelaide Law School and the editor of Exploring Wild Law. Mari Magil is Associate director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and international contributor to ‘Exploring Wild Law‘.
– To listen, go to ABC LateNightLive Earth Jurisprudence , click LISTEN NOW under IN THIS PROGRAM in the right side panel. Starts at 33:40 minutes into the program.
