A Legal personality for the st. lawrence river and other rivers of the world

Daniel Turp, Yenny Vega Cárdenas

Description

In the wake of the recognition of the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in India, the Yarra River in Australia and the Atrato River in Colombia as «subjects of rights», the International Observatory on Nature’s Rights has initiated a reflection on the possibility of recognizing the St. Lawrence River, the «path that walks» as it is called by the First Nations, as a «legal person». The texts in this collective work deal with the implications of attributing a legal personhood and rights to the St. Lawrence River, delve into the epistemological foundations of the paradigm of the recognition of the rights of Nature and present concrete cases of recognition of rivers as subjects of law.
Written by experts from several countries where the recognition of the legal personhood of rivers has occurred to date, they take an in-depth look at the challenges and contributions of this paradigm shift in river protection. This book answers questions about the implications of such recognition and contributes to the process of building a new law that has just begun in Quebec and Canada with the adoption in February 2021 of resolutions conferring the status of «legal person» on the MagPie/ Muteshekau Shipu River located on the North Shore of Quebec and on the Nitassinan (ancestral territory) of two Innu communities, Ekuanitshit and Uashat mak Mani-utemam.
Contributions : Inès Bennada, David Cordero Heredia, Teresa Vicente Giménez, Stratégies Saint-Laurent, Isabelle Delainey, Uapukun Mestokosho, Sylvain Gaudreault, Andrew Galliano, Nathalia Parra, Bianca De Marchi Moyano, Hugo Muñoz, Danaé Espinoza, Erin O’Donnell, Brettel Dawson, Shrishtee Bajpai, Rébecca Pétrin, Sokhna Sene, Victor David, Daniel Turp and Yenny Vega Cárdenas.

Sujets

• Law
• Droit et juridique
• Environmental

Informations

• Publié par: Éditions JFD Inc
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782897995119
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A Legal Personality
for the St. Lawrence River and other Rivers of the World
Edited by Yenny Vega Cárdenas and Daniel Turp




A Legal Personality for the St. Lawrence River and other Rivers of the World
Edited by Yenny Vega Cárdenas and Daniel Turp
© 2023 L es Éditions JFD inc.
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and Library and Archives Canada cata- loguing in publication
Title: A legal personhood for the St. Lawrence River and other rivers of the world.
Other titles: Personnalité juridique pour le fleuve Saint-Laurent et les fleuves du monde. English.
Names: Turp, Daniel. Vega Cárdenas, Yenny.
Description: Translation of: Une personnalité juridique pour le fleuve Saint-Laurent et les fleuves du monde. | Texts presented during the webinar A legal personality and rights for rivers, organized by the International Observatory of Nature’s Rights on June 22, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: Canadiana 20230053815 | ISBN 9782897995096
Subjects: LCSH: Saint Lawrence River – Law and legislation – Congresses. | LCSH: Rivers – Law and legislation – Québec (Province) – Congresses. | LCSH: Juristic persons – Québec (Province) – Congresses. | LCSH: Rivers – Law and legislation – Congresses. | LCSH: Environmental law – Congresses. | LCGFT: Conference papers and proceedings.
Classification: LCC KEQ850.P 4713 2023 | DDC 343.71409/24–dc23
Les Éditions JFD inc.
CP 15 S ucc. Rosemont
Montréal (Québec)
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Web: editionsjfd.com
All rights reserved.
Reproduction, in whole or in part in any form or by any means whatsoever, is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-2-89799-509-6
Legal Deposit: 2nd semester 2023
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Library and Archives Canada


Printed in Québec



To Alice Paré-Vega, so that she grows up in a world where Nature and all its species are protected.
To Nicolas and Catherine Knoppers-Turp, inviting them to also continue, in the name of future generations, the fight to save Mother Earth.





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Table of content
Foreword Daniel Turp 9
Acknowledgements 11
Biographical notes 13
Introduction Yenny Vega Cárdenas 25
Part I The St. Lawrence River & the Magpie River/ Mutehekau Shipu Legal Personhood 35
Chapter 1 T he Epistemology of Nature’s Rights approach Yenny Vega Cárdenas, Ph.D. and Nathalia Parra Meza 37
Chapter 2 T he Evolution of the Legal Framework for Water Governance in Quebec Yenny Vega Cárdenas, Inès Benadda and Andrew Galliano 73
Chapter 3 R ecognizing the Legal Personhood of the Magpie River/Mutehekau Shipu in Canada Yenny Vega Cárdenas and Uapukun Mestokosho 113
Chapter 4 S tratégies Saint-Laurent and the Quebec ZIP Committees propose more sustainable development and better integrated governance for a river that is still under pressure Stratégies Saint-Laurent 165



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A Legal Personality for the St. Lawrence River and other Rivers of the World


Part II The global movement for the recognition of the rights of Nature 181
Chapter 5 L et’s raise our glass to the river! Rébecca Pétrin and Isabelle Delainey 183
Chapter 6 P ost-covid reconstruction and wetlands Sylvain Gaudreault 203
Chapter 7 E cuador’s Jurisprudence on Rights of Nature: Advances and Perspectives David Cordero-Heredia 209
Chapter 8 B olivia: in between rights for “pachamama”, “vivir bien” and their tensions Bianca De Marchi Moyano 241
Chapter 9 E ducation: A route for the rights of Nature in Latin America and the Caribbean Berenice Danaé Espinoza Hernández 257
Chapter 10 R ights of Nature, an emerging approach to the many challenges of water management in Africa Sokhna Sene 275
Part III The recognition of rivers as subjects of law: an international perspective 311
Chapter 11 T he legal personality of rivers and food sovereignty, tools for local development Hugo A. Muñoz Ureña 313
Chapter 12 R e-setting our relationship with rivers: the high stakes of personhood Erin O’Donnell 325



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Table of content


Chapter 13 N ew Zealand/Aotearoa T. Brettel Dawson 343
Chapter 14 R ights of Rivers: The India case! Shrishtee Bajpai 369
Chapter 15 R ecognition of the Colombian Rivers and Nature as a subject of rights Yenny Vega Cárdenas and Nathalia Parra Meza 385
Chapter 16 T he Mar Menor: an ecosystem with its own rights Teresa Vicente Giménez 437
Chapter 17 T he recognition of the Pacific Ocean as a legal subject Victor David 447
Conclusion From the fundamental rights of Nature to the legal personhood of the St. Lawrence River Yenny Vega Cardenas and Daniel Turp 483
Appendix 1 521
Appendix 2 538
Appendix 3 539
Appendix 4 540
Appendix 5 541
Appendix 6 542
Appendix 7 543





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Foreword
Daniel Turp Emeritus Professor of the Faculty of Law of the Université de Montréal Associate researcher at the International Observatory for the Rights of Nature
Since its creation in 2018 a nd under the dynamic leadership of its president Yenny-Vega Cárdenas, the International Observatory for the Rights of Nature (IORN) ( www.observatoirenature.org ) has become a true social and legal laboratory whose mission is to focus on the evolution of the global movement for the recognition of the rights of Nature.
While observing the progress of this movement, the IORN has also made it its mission to work to support communities that want to know more about the implications of recognizing the rights of Nature. It has organized workshops with riparian and indigenous communities in Québec, as well as international webinars and virtual meetings. One of these webinars was held on January 25, 2021 o n the theme “The Right to Water vs. the Rights of Water: Harmony or Discord?” featuring the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd. An international webinar, viewed by over 1000 p ersons, on national and transboundary water manage- ment in Mexico around the theme “What if rivers had rights?” was held from November 24 t o 26, 2020, in cooperation with the Earth Law Center and the prestigious Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM in Mexico. A virtual meeting with the lawyer Kisula Yeyeye, an activist for the rights of nature in Tanzania, took place on September 25, 2020 a nd generated, at its first webinar, common interest of the community of promoters of the rights of Nature.



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A Legal Personality for the St. Lawrence River and other Rivers of the World


On June 22, 2020, as part of Water Month, the IORN organized a larger webinar on the theme “A Legal Personality and Rights for Rivers”, with a particular focus on the issue of recognizing Québec’s St. Lawrence River as a legal person, for which the IORN has initiated a petition.
This book aims to provide access to the contributions of some twenty speakers who participated in this webinar. Coming from more than 10 d ifferent countries as well as from the academic world and non-gov- ernmental organizations (NGO’s), the speakers, together with political leaders from the Parti Québécois. Québec solidaire, the New Democratic Party and the Green Party of Canada, had an audience of nearly one hundred people who took part in the event on the Zoom platform and about fifty via direct broadcasting on social networks.
While a video recording continues to provide access to the content of the papers presented at the webinar 1 , this book contains articles that have been revised and expanded since their presentation as papers on June 22, 2020. Other individuals, researchers and activists inter- ested in the rights of Nature, have also agreed to write for this collective work.
In partnership with the OIRN, the recent announcement of the granting of a «legal personality» to the Magpie/Muteshekau Shipu River through the adoption of two mirror resolutions by the Ekuanitshit Innu Council and the Minganie Regional County Municipality, should hopefully pave the way for such recognition. It will hopefully convince the Quebec National Assembly and the Canadian Parliament to recognize the majestic St. Lawrence River as a legal entity and as legal person.
This book, adds another foundational stone to the edifice that is being built to recognize of the rights of Nature and in particular, the legal personality of the world’s rivers.

1. The papers can be viewed on the IODN Facebook site at https://www.facebook. com/Observatoireinternationaldesdroitsdelanature?notif_id= 161159042570400 9 &notif_t=scheduled_post_published&ref=notif



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Acknowledgements
We would first like to thank the authors for their contributions to this collection of essays. This collection reflects speeches given during the June 22, 2020, webinar, but also at the COP- 27 o n Climate Change that took place in Egypt in November 2022, and at the COP- 15 o n Biodiversity held in Montreal in December 2022. Without their input, this book would not have been possible.
We deeply thank the review and translation committee composed of Émilie Doyon , Editor in chief at the International Observatory on Nature’s Rights (IONR), Elara Neath-Thomin Co-Head of Communications and the Development of Partnerships at (IONR), and other brilliant law students from McGill University and from the University of British Columbia including Alicia Howse , Grace Ma , Hannah