Promises and limits of the recognition of the rights of nature : the case of the decisions attributing legal personality to the Ganges and the Yamuna

Session 3 - The environment, nature and their rights

Chair: Thomas Perroud, Professor at Université Paris Panthéon-Assas, Humboldt Fellow at Humboldt University, Berlin.

Abstract

The question of recognizing the rights of nature has gained considerable momentum since the turn of the century. It also remains highly controversial, as it calls into question some of the basic principles of environmental law as it has evolved since the 1970s. Two main aspects can be noted here. In this context, the decisions of the High Court of the State of Uttarakhand (India) on the legal personality of the Ganges and the Yamuna, as well as most of the elements of their watersheds, conferring on them rights akin to fundamental rights, require particular attention. In particular, these decisions use the sacred nature of these rivers in Hindu religion as an anchor. This raises new questions, such as the place of riverside communities who depend on these rivers for their basic needs and livelihoods, or the nature of the relationship between these rivers and non-Hindu communities, both in India and in Bangladesh, where part of the Ganges delta is located.

Philippe Cullet

Dr Philippe Cullet is Professor of International and Environmental Law at SOAS University of London and Visiting Professor at the National Law University Delhi, New Delhi. He is, among others, the author of Water, Law, Poverty and Development - Water Sector Reforms in India (OUP, 2009) and has co-edited numerous books including Water Law in India - An Introduction to Legal Instruments (OUP,^2nd ed. 2017 - with S. Koonan). He currently leads the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law's Rights of Nature Task Force.