In 1972, American legal scholar Christopher Stone suggested a previously implausible concept that is largely credited to a small branch of the now mammoth and well-known tree called as ‘Earth Jurisprudence’. The term Earth Jurisprudence may be understood as a confluence of environmental rights and legal personhood, and is said to have been first coined by Thomas Berry in 2001. Stone had initially argued that trees, rivers, forests and nature at large be granted legal rights.
‘Legal personhood’ or ‘juristic persons’ is a concept that does not exist outside the periphery of law. In other words, it is legal fiction, similar to how literature has magical realism or historical fantasy. It is a tool created by legislators or courts that treats non-human entities as ‘persons’ in the eyes of law. In that sense, the concept allows said non-human entity a collection of rights and duties that can be reasonably expected from a human person. The statement is a nod to the constantly dilating landscape of legal fiction. Across the globe, there are some non-human entities that have been deemed “juristic persons” such as corporations, animals, rivers etc. India has charted a similar path, and her repertoire includes idols, temples, societies, trusts, nature and corporations within the ambit of ‘legal persons’.
More in congruence with Stone’s notion of ‘Rights of Nature’, the High Court of Uttarakhand granted legal personhood to the rivers Ganga and Yamuna. The judgment is currently pending appeal and its operation has been stayed by the Supreme Court of India. Similar to Stone’s argument that natural objects be empowered to seek redressal of violations of ‘rights’, this judgment had empowered the Advocate General of the State to act as ‘guardian’ of both rivers and plead or petition its interest before a court of law. Religiously inclined yet environmentally altruistic, the judgment notes:
“A juristic person, like any other natural person is in law also conferred with rights and obligations and is dealt with in accordance with law…Accordingly, while exercising the parens patrie jurisdiction, the Rivers Ganga and Yamuna, all their tributaries, streams, every natural water flowing with flow continuously or intermittently of these rivers, are declared as juristic/legal persons/living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person in order to preserve and conserve river Ganga and Yamuna.”
Source: Barandbench
