Granting legal personality to the elements of nature in the light of sustainable development

Subject Areas : environmental low

Zahra Sharegh ¹ , Hossein Rezazadeh ²

1 - Research Center for the Caspian Region, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of public law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran. *(Corresponding Author)

Received: 2021-04-10 Accepted : 2021-09-01 Published : 2022-02-20

Keywords: international law, Environmental sustainability, Legal personality of elements of nature, Environment, Sustainable development,

Abstract :

After World War II , the concept of sustainable development was introduced in order to balance the protection of the environment with the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, including the right to development; So that the exercise of human rights is not an excuse to destroy the environment. In fact, human beings realized that any damage to the environment ultimately endangers human beings and their dignity, and therefore, along with economic and social elements, environmental sustainability was identified as one elements of sustainable development. The present study seeks to examine how some governments, by identifying legal personality for the elements of nature, have taken steps towards environmental sustainability and ultimately the realization of sustainable development. It is a type of basic research that is descriptive-analytical and using library resources as well as using electronic resources including books, articles, dissertations, official conferences related to the subject (regional and international)in Persian and English languages and after raising the issue and clarifying the hypotheses, the data in accordance with the research questions in national and international judicial documents and procedures(both Persian and Latin)have been searched, collected, summarized and analyzed. One of the measures taken in recent years to environmental sustainability, has been recognized legal personality to the elements of nature. The practice of some countries, especially since 2008,shows that in order to achieve environmental sustainability, at the level of legislation or the procedure of the courts, the elements of nature have been recognized as rightful and representatives have been appointed to pursue their rights. Overall, developments in environmental law show that the identification of legal personality for the elements of nature has created a new development in the field of environmental law and sustainable development that is rapidly expanding in the international community. So that many governments can use this experience to take this step to provide the necessary grounds for greater environmental protection around the world.

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