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DO TREES HAVE RIGHTS? RIGHTS, NATURE, AND CONCEPTUAL CHANGE
Author(s) -
Klyza Christopher McGrory
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
southeastern political review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-1346
pISSN - 0730-2177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-1346.1994.tb00338.x
Subject(s) - historicity (philosophy) , political science , human rights , rights of nature , fundamental rights , reservation of rights , politics , law and economics , international human rights law , right to property , environmental ethics , sociology , law , philosophy
Does nature have rights? Can nature have rights? Should nature have rights? Is it sensible or nonsensical to talk of the rights of nature? I examine these questions here. I begin with a discussion of numerous approaches to rights, all sharing the common thread that rights cannot be applied to nature. Next I examine representatives from the current literature opposing and favoring extending rights to nature. I then shift to an exploration of conceptual change and the historicity of moral and political concepts and what this implies for present and future understandings of rights. I argue that rights can be extended to include nature and that this should be done. Finally, I present an outline for how such a rights‐based approach to protecting nature might work.