Draft:Eco Jurisprudence Monitor

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  • Comment: Needs more secondary sources with in depth coverage. Stuartyeates (talk) 22:58, 2 August 2025 (UTC)



Eco Jurisprudence Monitor
Type of site
Digital library
Available inEnglish, Spanish
Created byProf. Craig Kauffman [PI]
Founder(s)Rockefeller Brothers Fund Environment Now
URLecojurisprudence.org
RegistrationYes
Launched2022; 3 years ago (2022)
Current statusActive

The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor (EJM) is a non-profit, open access, online database that tracks Rights of Nature and other Earth Law around the world.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Launched in October of 2022, it provides summaries and full-text searches for academic and non-academic research.[10][11][12] As of August 2025, it features information on 589 initiatives in 55 countries and territories across all continents.[13]

Name

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Eco Jurisprudence is short for Ecological Jurisprudence, a term coined in 2012 by Associate Professor Alessandro Pelizzon from the University of the Sunshine Coast. As he explains in his book of the same name, he proposed it as an alternative to Cormac Cullinan's Wild Law and as a "cosmic" extension to Thomas Berry's Earth Jurisprudence.[3] The term is frequently used synonymously with Rights of Nature, Earth Law, Environmental Personhood, and other non-anthropocentric legal concepts.

History

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Since the mid-2000s, the legal implementation of ecological jurisprudence increased rapidly. Particularly the inclusion of rights of nature language in the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador positioned the idea within environmental law.[2] Several organisations, including the UN Harmony with Nature Programme,[14][15] the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund,[16] and Droit de la Nature,[17] began to track a growing number of initiatives. However, as Putzer et al. write, "their compiled lists and maps provide[d] mostly anecdotal and oftentimes incomplete overviews."[4] The need for an academically sound database became increasingly evident.

As its Principal Investigator, Prof. Craig Kauffman from the University of Oregon received several grants from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to create such a database.[18] He built on earlier work which he had carried out together with Prof. Pamela Martin from the Coastal Carolina University, Maria Mercedes Sanchez from the UN Harmony with Nature Programme, and Linda Sheehan from the NGO Environment Now. Their original research created two databases. The first one included information on rights of nature organizations, their attributes, and their network ties to one another. It was used for a network analysis mapping.[19] The second database contained information on legal provisions recognizing the rights of nature. It was further developed by Dr. Alex Putzer from Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and published in the Journal of Maps in June 2022.[4][5]

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Environment Now agreed to fund the creation and design of a website that would make this data accessible to a wider audience.[18][20] The EJM launched in October of 2022. According to its website, it "is an interactive online platform that compiles ecological jurisprudence initiatives globally as well as related resources for researchers, lawyers, policymakers, and activists." All of its data and visualizations are covered by a Creative Commons license Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

As of August 2025, Kauffman remains the PI of the research project and acts as the EJM's Executive Director. Cat Haas is the site's Director of Operations. Louis Charron is listed as the Director of Technology and Design, Montserrat Anguiano as the Communications Manager, Laura Burgers as the Project Lead for the Eco Jurisprudence Blog, and Lauren Tarr as the Project Lead for the Eco Jurisprudence Library. The EJM has an Advisory Board consisting of five members and an expert network featuring a growing number of Representatives responsible for the accuracy of the site's information.[21]

Content

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According to its codebook, the EJM tracks initiatives that are

  1. Explicitly legal (legal provisions with some level of formal authority)
  2. Following one of two principles: a) Transcending (explicitly or implicitly) an anthropocentric view or promoting b) Ecological Primacy[22]

Among the most recognizable initiatives featured on the EJM are Articles 71-74 of the 2008 Constitution of Ecuador, national laws about the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand and the Mar Menor in Spain, as well as court decisions on the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers in India or the Atrato River in Colombia.

The database has been cited multiple times in a 2025 Advisory Opinion by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.[23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Nature Revisited (2024-06-10). Episode 123: Craig Kauffman - Rights of Nature. Retrieved 2025-08-03 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ a b Kauffman, Craig (2024). Global Patterns and Trends in Rights of Nature Legal Provisions: Insights from the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor (PDF). New York City: New York University School of Law. pp. 201–227.
  3. ^ a b Pelizzon, Alessandro (2025). Ecological jurisprudence: the law of nature and the nature of law. Contemporary environmental law and policy. Singapore: Springer. ISBN 978-981-96-0173-8.
  4. ^ a b c Putzer, Alex; Lambooy, Tineke; Jeurissen, Ronald; Kim, Eunsu (2022-01-01). "Putting the rights of nature on the map. A quantitative analysis of rights of nature initiatives across the world". Journal of Maps. 18 (1): 89–96. Bibcode:2022JMaps..18...89P. doi:10.1080/17445647.2022.2079432.
  5. ^ a b Putzer, Alex; Cook, John; Pollock, Ben (2025-12-31). "Putting the rights of nature on the map. A quantitative analysis of rights of nature initiatives across the world – Second Edition". Journal of Maps. 21 (1): 2440376. Bibcode:2025JMaps..2140376P. doi:10.1080/17445647.2024.2440376.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  6. ^ "New Rights of Nature tool: Get to know the Eco-Jurisprudence Monitor! - Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN)". 2023-01-13. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  7. ^ "Eco Jurisprudence Monitor | Third Horizon Earth". thirdhorizon.earth. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  8. ^ Kauffman, Craig (2022-04-22). "The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor" (PDF). UN Harmony With Nature. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  9. ^ "S1 | Ep2: Who Speaks for the Trees?". Castbox. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  10. ^ Hernández-Umaña, Bernardo Alfredo; Ramírez, Oliver Mauricio Esguerra; Bedriñana, Karen Giovanna Añaños (2024-04-30). "Earth jurisprudence in South America: Trends and developments". Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development. 8 (5): 3515. doi:10.24294/jipd.v8i5.3515. ISSN 2572-7931.
  11. ^ Kauffman, Craig M.; Martin, Pamela L. (July 2023). "How Ecuador's Courts Are Giving Form and Force to Rights of Nature Norms". Transnational Environmental Law. 12 (2): 366–395. Bibcode:2023TELaw..12..366K. doi:10.1017/S2047102523000080. ISSN 2047-1025.
  12. ^ "Opinion | Trump's War on Nature Is Up Against a Powerful New Resistance Movement". 2025-05-30. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  13. ^ "Eco Jurisprudence Monitor". Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  14. ^ "Harmony With Nature - Law List". www.harmonywithnatureun.org. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  15. ^ "Harmony With Nature - Policies List". www.harmonywithnatureun.org. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  16. ^ "Rights of Nature". CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  17. ^ "Reconnaissance et Historique des Droits de la Nature". Droits de la Nature (in French). Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  18. ^ a b "University of Oregon | Rockefeller Brothers Fund". www.rbf.org. 2025-06-27. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  19. ^ Kauffman, Craig (2020-03-29). "Mapping Transnational Rights of Nature Networks & Laws: New Global Governance Structures for More Sustainable Development" (PDF). UN Harmony with Nature Programme. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  20. ^ "Environmental Rights – Environment Now". environmentnow.org. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  21. ^ "Team". Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  22. ^ "Codebook". Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  23. ^ Inter-American Court of Human Rights (2025-05-29). "OPINIÓN CONSULTIVA OC-32/25 DE 29 DE MAYO DE 2025" (PDF).
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