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Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial. This article describes the development of legal aid and its principles, primarily as known in Europe, the Commonwealth of Nations and in the United States.
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César Rodríguez-Garavito is an international human rights and environmental law scholar and practitioner. He is a Professor of Clinical Law and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law. Rodríguez-Garavito is the founding director of the Earth Rights Advocacy Clinic, the Climate Litigation Accelerator, and the Future of Human Rights Practicum at NYU Law. He is also the editor-in-chief of Open Global Rights, a leading online opinion portal in the human rights field.
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With the adoption of a new constitution in 2008 under president Rafael Correa, Ecuador became the first country in the world to enshrine a set of codified Rights of Nature and to inform a more clarified content to those rights. Articles 10 and 71–74 of the Ecuadorian Constitution recognize the inalienable rights of ecosystems to exist and flourish, give people the authority to petition on the behalf of nature, and requires the government to remedy violations of these rights.
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Environmental personhood or juridic personhood is a legal concept which designates certain environmental entities the status of a legal person. This assigns to these entities, the rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities and legal liability of a legal personality. Because environmental entities such as rivers and plants can not represent themselves in court, a "guardian" can act on the entity's behalf to protect it. Environmental personhood emerged from the evolution of legal focus in pursuit of the protection of nature. Over time, focus has evolved from human interests in exploiting nature, to protecting nature for future human generations, to conceptions that allow for nature to be protected as intrinsically valuable. This concept can be used as a vehicle for recognising Indigenous peoples' relationships to natural entities, such as rivers. Environmental personhood, which assigns nature certain rights, concurrently provides a means to individuals or groups such as Indigenous peoples to fulfill their human rights.
Rights of nature law is the codification and other implementations of the legal and jurisprudential theory of the rights of nature. This legal school of thought describes inherent rights as associated with ecosystems and species, similar to the concept of fundamental human rights.
Harry Driver Jonas is a British international lawyer and social entrepreneur, best known for his contributions to legal empowerment and area-based conservation. He advanced the theory and practice of community protocols to affirm Indigenous peoples’ rights over their territories and traditional knowledge, and was instrumental in developing the international framework for other effective area-based conservation measures to better recognize biodiversity beyond protected areas.
References
- ↑ Zelle, Anthony; et al. (1 February 2021). Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law— A Guide for Practitioners. Aspen Publishing. p. 776. ISBN 9781543820683 . Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ↑ United Nations. "Earth Jurisprudence". Harmony with Nature. United Nations. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ↑ Tucker, Mary Evelyn. "Thomas Berry and the Rights of Nature". Kosmos Journal. Kosmos. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ↑ Pierce, Tara (Summer 2022). "Radical Legal Change: Moving Toward Earth Law". Hastings Environmental Law Journal. 28 (2): 30. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ↑ Kayman, Lindsey; et al. (22 April 2021). "Earth Law and the Rights of Nature A New Generation of Laws Built for Nature". Open Educational Resources. John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Retrieved 28 July 2023.