Planetary Medicine and the Waitangi Tribunal Whanganui River Report: Global Health Law Embracing Ecosystems as Patients

Journal of Law and Medicine 2013; 20: 528-541

14 Pages Posted: 26 Mar 2013

See all articles by Timothy Vines

Timothy Vines

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Ven. Alex Bruce

ANU College of Law

Thomas Alured Faunce

Australian National University

Date Written: March 19, 2013

Abstract

A recent decision of the Waitangi Tribunal granted legal personhood to New Zealand’s Whanganui River (appointing guardians to act in its interests). Exploring the impacts of this decision, this column argues that new technologies (such as artificial photosynthesis) may soon be creating policy opportunities not only for legal personhood to be stripped from some artificial persons, but for components of the natural world (such as rivers and other ecosystems) to be granted such enforceable legal rights. Such technologies, if deployed globally, may do this by taking the pressure off ecosystems to be exploited for human profit and survival. It argues that, by also creating normative space for such an expansion of sympathy, global heath law begins to incorporate the vision of planet as patient.

Keywords: corporations law, natural law, rights of nature, environmental law, legal standing, competition and consumer law, artificial photosynthesis, corporate personhood, sustainability

JEL Classification: Q15, Q16, Q25, Q26, H41, Q42, K22, K32, K33

Suggested Citation

Vines, Timothy and Bruce, Ven. Alex and Faunce, Thomas Alured, Planetary Medicine and the Waitangi Tribunal Whanganui River Report: Global Health Law Embracing Ecosystems as Patients (March 19, 2013). Journal of Law and Medicine 2013; 20: 528-541, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2235935

Timothy Vines

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Ven. Alex Bruce

ANU College of Law ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia

Thomas Alured Faunce (Contact Author)

Australian National University ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia
61 2 61253563 (Phone)

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