MWP Lecture with Professor Helena Alviar García, March 2024

Granting rights to protect nature: possibilities and limitations
For the last ten years and in the most diverse jurisdictions, there has been a movement to grant rights nature (either through constitutional and legal arrangements or judicial intervention). The adjudication of rights has also been central to attempts to undermine the differential effects that climate change has upon women, indigenous groups or slum dwellers. Rights carry important consequences such as transforming the view of nature, illuminating the conditions of environmental degradation and creating the mechanisms to counteract the excessive burden shouldered by a group. But there are also limitations related to national economic development goals in relation to global capitalism and the diverse ways in which law distributes resources. The talk will have as its goal to explore, situate in a specific context and critically evaluate the use of rights to protect nature.