The integration of legal personhood and water markets: an institutional perspective
When:
—
Venue:
Online
We are pleased to announce the 2nd Seminar Series on Governance, Institutions, and Sustainability jointly hosted by the Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies and by the Birkbeck Responsible Business Centre, within the Birkbeck Business School.
In our rapidly evolving world, the intricate web connecting governance, institutions, and sustainability has become increasingly prominent. We invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to enhance this very important debate and to join us in exploring the profound intertwining of these critical elements at our upcoming seminar series.
Abstract
The recent extension of legal personhood to rivers, streams, and lakes, has been heralded as a revolution in freshwater governance. For many Rights of Nature advocates the granting of legal rights to freshwater bodies represents a pivotal shift towards an ecocentric philosophy that is incompatible with the anthropocentric approach to water management embodied by markets. Here we present an alternative view. We argue that legal personhood is a flexible legal tool that is compatible with a range of other freshwater institutions designed to protect and uphold instream or environmental flow rights, including water markets. Drawing on the theory of property rights and environmental law, the positive, normative, and practical realities of institutional layering are examined and applied in the context of water management. The results highlight the barriers and opportunities for instream flow provision when a river owns itself in the presence of a market, and point to a series of unsettled questions for future research.
Speaker
Julia Talbot Jones (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Convener/Organiser: Dr Luca Andriani
Contact name:
Luca Andriani
- Julia Talbot-Jones (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zeland)