London, Europe Brief News – Granting legal rights and protections to non-human entities such as animals, trees and rivers is essential, experts have suggested.
A new report entitled Law in the Emerging Bio Age said that legal frameworks have a key part to play in governing human interactions with the environment and biotechnology.
Ecuador and Bolivia have already enshrined rights for the natural world. Meanwhile, there is a campaign to make ecocide a prosecutable offence at the international criminal court.
The experts’ report for the Law Society, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, explores how the relationship between humans and mother earth might change in the future.
Her co-author, Dr Trish O’Flynn, an interdisciplinary researcher who was previously the national lead for civil contingencies at the Local Government Association, said legal frameworks should be “fit for a more than human future” and developments such as genetic modification or engineering. This means covering everything from labradors to lab-grown brain tissue, rivers to robots.
Such a right could apply to sows in intensive pig farming, calves taken away from their mothers and even pets, said O’Flynn. “I say that as a dog lover. We do constrain their behaviour to suit us.”
