Naturens rättigheter-ett paradigmskifte i den västerländska antropocentrismen?

Abstract

This essay will describe a concrete example of Rights of Nature, namely the Act Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement Act) from 2017. This Act implicate that the Whanganui river in New Zeeland has rights as a legal person and is a result of a long struggle from the Maori people. Initially will the essay setting out a background to the historical relation between man and nature from the Ancient Greeks to the 20th century. This will be followed of a short review of the concept of Rights. The essay contains also a briefly review of current postcolonial theories. The main part of the essay contains a close reading to the legal text Te Awa Tupua. The Act is written with huge respect for the maori culture, language and symbolic points of views. The colonial state Great Britain has since 1840 oppressed the Maori culture and expresses in the Act, together with different regulations, their apologizes for the historical assaults- many Maoris describes the Act as a paradigm shift. Some critical voices have though been heard in the tracks of the Act. Some means that the Act is not ambitious enough, and others that it not possible to make a river to a legal person, either from a juridical nor a philosophical perspective. The essay tries to answer the question if this new-thinking juridical approach can be the beginning of a change in the Western Antropocentrism- or if it is a one-time occasion, soon forgotten?