Abbreviation ELC Type NGO | Formation 2008 Location Fremont, California | |
Purpose Recognizing and promoting the rights of nature Headquarters San Francisco Bay Area, California | ||
Earth Law Center (ELC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Fremont, California, which aims to educate and advocate for laws and policies that recognize and promote the rights of nature to exist, thrive and evolve. Members of the group believe that recognizing and implementing the rights of nature in law is necessary to begin to reverse what they regard as a trend of environmental degradation, and that current environmental laws have been unable to solve this.
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Rights of Nature
Earth Law Center and partner groups around the world are involved in a movement to recognize the rights of nature. Earth Law Center asserts that the overarching legal system generally treats the natural world as property that can be exploited and degraded, rather than as an ecological partner with its own rights to exist and thrive. They further assert that environmental regulations in turn accept this overarching system and assume that the environment will be protected if humans take from it a little less, and a little less quickly, but that this will simply slow, and never stop, environmental degradation. The rights of nature movement contends that the value and rights of the natural world arise from the fact of its existence. Several notable legal instruments incorporate nature's rights, including the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador, which recognizes the inalienable rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish and allows for citizens to enforce these rights, and Bolivia's Law of the Rights of Mother Earth and subsequent Framework Law on Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well, which recognize legal rights for Mother Earth.
Activities
Earth Law Center works at the local, regional, state, and international levels to promote the rights of nature. At the local level, Earth Law Center worked closely with the City of Santa Monica Task Force on the Environment and other stakeholders to develop a city ordinance on rights of nature, which was unanimously passed by the Santa Monica City Council as the Sustainability Rights Ordinance.
At the state level, Earth Law Center works to advance new California policies and governance systems that recognize the rights of rivers and other waterways to flow, and the rights of marine ecosystems and species to thrive in biodiversity. Earth Law Center also works with local advocates in an ongoing effort to amend Vermont's Constitution to recognize and protect the rights of nature.
At the international level, along with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and invited panelists, Earth Law Center addressed the United Nations on Earth Day 2013, at the "Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature to Commemorate Mother Earth Day." At this conference, Earth Law Center discussed alternative economic approaches, such as ecological economics, that further what the ELC regards as a more ethical relationship with the Earth, and which rhey assert are consistent with recognition of the rights of nature. Earth Law Center also emphasizes the inherent connection between humans and the environment generally; for example, their interactive Map of Human and Environmental Rights Violations documents what they describe as "co-violations" of human and environmental rights worldwide.
Leadership
Linda Sheehan is the Executive Director of Earth Law Center. She has worked on environmental law and policy issues for over 20 years, primarily focused around California water issues. She writes and speaks extensively on the rights of nature, including a TEDxMarin talk on the rights of nature and an address before the United Nations General Assembly. For her work successfully advancing federal and state legislation, policy, and litigation initiatives on clean water, marine protection, and other environmental issues, such was named a California Coastal Hero by the California Coastal Commission and Sunset Magazine.
History
Earth Law Center was first established as the Center for Earth Jurisprudence, Inc. in 2008 to support new “Earth Jurisprudence” programs at law schools, including Barry University School of Law in Orlando, Florida. The organization expanded its mission in 2010 to become Earth Law Center, which now drafts and promotes new laws and policies, as well as law school and other university curricula, that advance the rights of nature.
Partners
Earth Law Center works with coalitions and organizations on rights of nature issues at the local, state, national, and international levels, including the following: