Rights of Nature and Other Emerging Legal Movements to Save the Planet

This program will explore emerging legal movements seeking to transform our relationship with the natural world. Topics include the Rights of Nature, rights of future generations, human environmental rights, Indigenous rights, legal guardianship for nature, and rights for nonhuman species, amongst others. The course will explore flaws in our current legal system that drive environmental degradation and how lawyers can help solve them. These concepts will also be illustrated through case studies, including a deep dive into a campaign to free a captive Southern Resident orca based on Indigenous rights.

About the Speaker: Grant Wilson is the Executive Director of Earth Law Center. He is a leading expert on the Rights of Nature, ecocentric law, water law, international law, and human environmental rights. For the last decade, he has defended the rights and interests of Nature all over the world, including by writing new Rights of Nature laws and winning decisive courtroom victories for rivers and other ecosystems. Grant co-wrote and edited the first law school coursebook on the emerging field of 'Earth law'. He is an expert member of the U.N. Harmony with Nature Initiative and IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Grant earned a J.D. with a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School.