Reimagining International Law: Exploring the Implications of Extending Legal Personhood to Nature
22 May 2025
Key points
- Traditional anthropocentric legal frameworks in international law are inadequate for addressing contemporary ecological crises.
- Recognising nature’s legal personhood challenges the human-centric foundations of international law and offers a transformative approach to environmental governance.
- Structural constraints – particularly state sovereignty and the limitations of sustainable development paradigms – remain major impediments to the international recognition of nature’s rights.
- Incremental measures such as soft law instruments, guardianship models and a potential study by the International Law Commission provide feasible pathways for progress.
- Advancing legal recognition for nature requires not only legal reform, but a broader normative shift in how international law conceptualises its subjects and purpose
Disclaimer: The views, information and opinions expressed in this publication are the author’s/authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the GCSP or the members of its Foundation Council. The GCSP is not responsible for the accuracy of the information.
Information
By
Ms Amber Darwish, Fellow of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and a Lifetime Fellow of the Sylff Association