For three days, on November 14, 15, and 16, the council of witnesses gathered with Camille de Toledo to engage in debates together and publicly, questioning researchers, elected officials, and local and international stakeholders about a future world acknowledging the Earth’s turning point and the consideration of non-human perspectives in our law.
This turning point, this bifurcation, this movement does not happen on its own; otherwise, it would have already occurred.
However, there is no reason why the progress of the law should not continue, and it is likely to strengthen in the coming years.
What paths, what ways, what breaks will legal progress take? The recognition of legal personality for rivers and streams is a promising path on a global scale. It is not a given, and naturally, it encounters obstacles and opposition.
During the first two days at the Institute for Advanced Study, our discussions, first within the Council of Witnesses, were later enriched by the perspectives of researchers, scholars, and lawyers associated with the project. We debated the graphic representations proposed by Axelle Grégoire to visualize these new legal natural entities, stemming from a research residency that took place at the Château de Goutelas in September.
Finally, we reached out to elected officials and local actors to gather their views: Jean-Sébastien Guitton, Mayor of Orvault and Vice-President of Nantes Métropole responsible for the water cycle and biodiversity; Aziliz Gouez, Vice-President of Nantes Métropole responsible for territorial alliance and higher education and research; Christopher Sebaoun, City Councilor of Tours in charge of issues related to the Loire and Cher rivers, the preservation of river heritage, and aquifer resources; Tristian Riom, Vice-President of Nantes Métropole responsible for agriculture, climate, economic transitions, resilience, food transition, and energy transitions; Anthony Descloziers, Mayor of Saint-Luce, Vice-President for the economy, corporate social and environmental responsibility, tourism, and cultural metropolitan equipment; Simon Léry, Director of GIP Loire Estuaire.
Axelle Grégoire, architect and co-author, notably with Alexandra Arènes and Frédérique Aït-Touati, of the manifesto book for a terrestrial cartography, Terra Forma (B-42 editions).
Photo credit: Anne-Marie Filaire
General Issue
Our discussions focused on this hypothesis: if “legal persons” of natural entities (such as rivers, forests, valleys, etc.) were to proliferate, how could this function? What could their mode of governance be, in order to best represent their non-human rights? What connections would be formed between these new entities and existing institutional actors? And also, what could be the consequences of the emergence of non-human figures in the social space on the economy in which we live?
Local and Bio-regional Issue
Our effort then shifted to our immediate environment: if we had to imagine, represent, draw, design, embody the "legal person" LOIRE, and define its rights, capacities, and needs, breaking away from the purely utilitarian perspective imposed on the river, what questions would we ask, where would we begin? If we were to design a "totemic mask" to embody this vast entity of LOIRE, what designs and patterns would come to mind? Who could represent Loire within our human institutions and defend its rights in court?
Photo credit: Anne-Marie Filaire
And Internationally
Finally, on November 16 at the Lieu Unique and in front of a public audience, we heard testimonies from international witnesses engaged in the struggle to support ecosystems in their fight for rights in Ecuador, Colombia, the United States, New Zealand, and Spain.
We had gathered online about twenty representatives from different collectives advocating for the rights of nature in France, and the public also turned out in large numbers to listen.
Often, the rights of nature emerge in response to major violations of the integrity of these ecosystems: intensive agriculture, mass tourism, mining exploitation, and chaotic urbanization lead to major pollution, mass deaths of species living there, and severe degradation of local communities' living conditions. All shared how the institutions and laws in place at the time of their struggle were inadequate to combat these environmental harms.
They explained how their fight contributed to the emergence of the rights of nature, their introduction into different legal systems (such as the Ecuadorian Constitution, in law in New Zealand or Spain, before courts or at the local level in the United States), with both successes and failures. We also examined their choices of representation for natural entities: human guardians in the Whanganui, monitoring committees, and representatives of the Mar Menor, and how their rights are reflected in institutions, governance models, and the defense of their interests in court.
These are inspiring examples to continue our discussions as we move toward the third major milestone in November 2025.
Rory Smith, member of Te Kōpuka, the group mandated by the Te Awa Tupua legislation recognizing the legal personality of the Whanganui River in New Zealand, to define a river strategy on its behalf.
Photo credit: Anne-Marie Filaire
