Environmental law. It is the fastest growing legal movement worldwide that aims to grant rights to nature. Do you think that rivers, forests and seas should be given rights? Or is that going a step too far?
Jessica den Outer (27) is an environmental lawyer. During her studies in international and European law, she read about the Whanganui River in New Zealand, which had been given legal personality.
She did not know that a river could have rights, but she soon discovered that there are many more places in the world where people recognize that nature has a right to exist and should be protected. In 2023 there are more than four hundred, but for Den Outer that is still not enough.
Environmental law is also becoming increasingly important in the Netherlands. At the beginning of this year, D66 wrote a bill for legal personality for the Wadden Sea, and the Party for the Animals came up with a constitutional proposal. A total of seven political parties mentioned rights for nature in their election manifestos.
What do you think, should rivers, forests and seas be given rights? Or do you think that goes too far? Let us know and participate in the Statement of the Day.