ABSTRACT
The transnational movement to recognise the legal rights of rivers is centred on the relationship between people and place. The constructions of the environment in law are underpinned by cultural narratives about the value of the environment: ‘stories matter to environmental law’. Constructing the river as a legal person increases the legal powers available to help protect the river from future impacts. Legal rights for rivers create a new dialogue between two often ideologically opposed paradigms: legal rights for nature and market environmentalism. Both market environmentalism and the legal rights for nature movement thus focus on a construction of the environment as a legal subject. Competition policy and market reforms of the 1980s in both Australia and the USA increased the use of market mechanisms by governments to improve efficiency of resource use and service delivery. In the USA the environmental water managers have been focused on building collaboration and consensus, and need to enhance their legal power.
