Erin O'Donnell and Julia Talbot-Jones - the rights of nature

A couple of weeks back the Whanganui River was granted legal personhood with the passing of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill. The pioneering legislation was widely reported to be a world first. The fact that two Indian rivers were granted the same status in the same week was barely noted. Erin O'Donnell, a senior fellow at the Centre for Resources, Energy and Environment Law at the University of Melbourne; and New Zealander Julia Talbot-Jones, a PhD student in Environmental Economics at the Australian National University in Canberra have a keen interest in the implications of governments recognising the rights of nature. Background reading: Three rivers are now legally people