ABSTRACT
Legal responsibility for freshwater bodies is emerging worldwide. It is particularly evident in relation to rivers. Legal personality may well become part of a rights of nature toolbox, but it is not synonymous with rights of nature. This chapter surveys a range of examples whereby rivers have been given legal personality or similar rights, seemingly in an effort to uphold human responsibility better to protect them from degradation. The examples are first drawn from the United States of America, where nature has been given a range of rights, in order to illustrate key rights of nature arguments. Then four examples of rivers in different countries are addressed: the Vilcabamba River in Ecuador, the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Ganges River in India, and the Atrato River in Columbia. The modern idea of legal personality and rights for nature most famously arose from Christopher Stone's work in 1972.
