---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Great Transition Network <[email protected]> Date: Sun, Jul 3, 2016 at 10:28 PM Subject: Against Ecocide (GTN Discussion) To: [email protected]
>From Stephen Woolpert <[email protected]> ------------------------------------------------------- An excellent precursor to the concept of ecocide is Christopher Stone's iconic 1972 Yale Law Review article, ‘Should Trees Have Standing?’. It remains the definitive statement as to why trees, oceans, animals, and the environment as a whole should be bestowed with legal rights. Stone argued that special guardians should be empowered to speak for the "voiceless" elements in nature, in effect, to give legal standing to endangered species and threatened forests. Human rights courts have taken important steps to protect the environment, but always so as to protect the rights of the human. This leads some to identify a fundamental contradiction: by placing environmental claims in a human rights framework, the system reinforces the very conditions that give rise to natural harms in the first place, by shackling the protection of the natural object to the interests of the human(s) espousing the claim. Stone challenged the assumption that the human person is necessarily and naturally at the center of any legal order, be it national or international. He caused a great many readers to reflect in an ecological manner, by imagining what it means to conceive of the interests of a natural object from a non-human perspective. The Journal of Human Rights and the Environment published a retrospective, "Should trees have standing: 40 years on?" here: www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/jhre/3-0/jhre.2012.02.00.xml Steve Woolpert ************************** On 7/1/16 8:17 AM, Great Transition Network wrote: >From Paul Raskin ----- Dear GTN: Our JULY discussion will approach GTI’s overarching theme – shaping a civilized planetary future – from a fresh angle: the legal effort now gaining traction to criminalize the wanton destruction of nature. Femke Wijdekop takes this on in a new Viewpoint, “Against Ecocide: Legal Protection for Earth.” Femke introduces the idea of the “rights of nature” and the history of the concept of “ecocide.” However, her primary focus is on action, specifically, the movement to add ecocide as a crime against peace under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Expanding the juridical architecture for protecting rights will surely be a vital prong in the systemic movement we so urgently need. But to what degree can it succeed in isolation? And what is the larger role of law and legal activism in a Great Transition? Please read Femke’s short piece at www.greattransition.org/publication/against-ecocide and weigh in with your thoughts. It will be published in August, along with selected comments drawn from the forthcoming discussion Comments are welcome through JULY 31. Looking forward, Paul Raskin GTI Director ----- Hit reply to post a message Or see thread and reply online at www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/176-against-ecocide/1637 Need help? Email [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------- Hit reply to post a message Or see thread and reply online at http://www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/176-against-ecocide/1641 Need help? Email [email protected] -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens
_______________________________________________ P2P Foundation - Mailing list Blog - http://www.blog.p2pfoundation.net Wiki - http://www.p2pfoundation.net Show some love and help us maintain and update our knowledge commons by making a donation. Thank you for your support. https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/donation https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
