ABSTRACT
Since 2016, several river basins in Colombia have been granted rights as legal subjects. These cases are concrete manifestations of broader proposals granting legal rights to nature made by scientists, environmentalists, indigenous communities, and policymakers who recognize the power of strategic litigation. Similar legal cases can now be found across the world. In this chapter, we detail the background of these cases and discuss whether these cases of riverine rights, as a specific category of nature’s rights, represent convincing attempts to establish a new mode of human-nature relations. As a result, we critically explore both the opportunities these cases provide for the protection of rivers and the practical challenges that they create for riverine guardianship. We consider their value as a source of inspiration for wider environmental governance and extrACTIVISM, but also consider the tensions these cases produce with established understandings of human rights. Some have claimed that these cases represent a significant development in the recognition of indigenous rights by settling complex claims to resource rights in a way that may reflect their worldviews. However, we observe that the bestowal of legal personality to rivers might in some cases further complicate existing claims for territorial rights.
