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29 Griffith L. Rev. 643 (2020)
Rivers as Living Beings: Rights in Law, but No Rights to Water?

handle is hein.journals/griffith29 and id is 643 raw text is: GRIFFITH LAW REVIEW 2020, VOL. 29, NO. 4, 643-668 https://doi.org/10.1080/10383441.2020.1881304 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group Rivers as living beings: rights in law, but no rights to water? Erin O'Donnell Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Since 2017, some of the most beloved and iconic rivers in the world River; legal person; have been recognised in law as legal persons and/or living entities, Indigenous; water rights; with a range of legal rights and protections. These profound legal extinction changes can transform the relationship between people and rivers, and are the result of ongoing leadership from Indigenous peoples and environmental advocates. This paper uses a comparative analysis of the legal and/or living personhood of rivers and lakes in Aotearoa New Zealand, India, Bangladesh, Colombia to identify the legal status of specific rivers, and highlight the disturbing trend of recognising rivers as legal persons and/or living entities whilst also denying rivers the right to flow. Rather than empowering rivers in law to resist existential threats, the new legal status of rivers may thus make it even more difficult to manage rivers to prevent their degradation and loss. This paper highlights an 'extinction problem' for rivers that environmental law has exacerbated, by recognising new non- human living beings whilst simultaneously denying them some of the specific legal rights they need to remain in existence. The paper also shows how a pluralist analysis of the status of rivers can help to identify some potential ways to address this problem. Introduction Rivers and wetlands are some of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet.' Since 2017, some of the most beloved and iconic rivers and lakes in the world have been recog- nised in law as legal persons and/or living entities, with a range of legal rights and pro- tections.2 These profound legal changes allow the law to 'see' complex systems as legal subjects, and may enable us to harness the power of environmental law to prevent their future extinction. But does the recognition of rivers in law as legal persons or living beings actually help to save them? The recognition of complex, landscape scale systems as legal and/or living beings rep- resents one of the biggest structural changes in environmental law in decades. UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, David Boyd, described legal rights of nature as a 'legal revolution' that could help to level the playing field between humans and nature.3 More profoundly, the recognition of rivers legal and/or living beings is CONTACT Erin O'Donnell erin.odonnell@unimelb.edu.au 'Vrosmarty et al. (2010); Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). 2Clark et al. (2018). 3Boyd (2017). © 2021 Griffith University

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