Dr Alessandro Pelizzon: Towards an Ecological Jurisprudence

"When Christopher Stone asked his provocative question at the end of an introductory class in property law at the University of Southern California in 1972, ‘should trees have standing?’, he could scarcely have predicted how his suggestion would have affected the dominant legal paradigm in decades to come. The most significant outcome of Stone’s provocative suggestion has certainly been the proliferation of rights of Nature cases and legislation across the planet. From the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund- (CELDF-)assisted local laws, to the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution, which expressly grants constitutionally enshrined rights to Nature or ‘Pacha Mama’; from the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth to the creation of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature; from the establishment of the United Nations Harmony with Nature programme to the New Zealand's Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui Claims Settlement) Act. All these examples are representative of a conceptual shift that has occurred, both within environmental philosophy and legal theory, in the course of the past four decades, one toward a veritable ecological jurisprudence."

Abstract of talk

This conference will resume the cycle of JRC Art and Science talks on the topic of Changing the Ground​, following last year’s series in collaboration with the European School of Administration. Whilst pertaining to the original theme, conversations will probe into questions raised by NaturArchy​ and the related discussions at the JRC SciArt Summer School 2022.

WHEN AND WHERE

• Oct 06 2022 ; 12:00pm - 1:00pm

• JRC Ispra (on-site colleagues only) & Webex (open to externals with prior registration)

To receive the Webex connection details please email: jrc-resonances@ec.europa.eu.

Biography Dr Alessandro Pelizzon completed his LLB/LLM at the University of Turin in Italy, specialising in comparative law and legal anthropology with a field research project conducted in the Andes. His Doctoral research, conducted at the University of Wollongong, focused on native title and legal pluralism in the Illawarra region. Alessandro has been exploring the emerging discourse on rights of Nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception, with a particular focus on the intersection between this emerging discourse and different legal ontologies. Alessandro is a co-founder and an Executive Committee Member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature programme, as well as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business, Law and Arts at Southern Cross University. Alessandro’s main areas of research are legal anthropology, legal theory, comparative law, ecological jurisprudence, sovereignty, and Indigenous rights. His book Ecological Jurisprudence is about to published by Edinburgh University Press. Reference for Dr Pelizzon's book: Alessandro Pelizzon, Ecological Jurisprudence. Law, Representation and Environmental Metaphysics (Edinburgh University Press, 2023, upcoming)