Rights of Nature, Wrong for the Commons
Risks of Assigning Legal Personhood to the Rivers of Washington State
Srinandan Ramachandran
Abstract
The Rights of Nature (“RoN”) movement, which seeks to grant legal personhood to natural entities, has recently gained traction in Washington State and globally. While intended to enhance environmental protection and Indigenous sovereignty, RoN burdens commons governance by expanding the right to exclude. This paper advances a critique of proposals to grant legal personhood to rivers in Washington State, highlighting conflicts with standing, liability, and the jurisprudential tenets of legal personhood. RoN undermines equitable usufructuary access to the commons, or lands and waters without exclusionary rights, thereby impeding marginalized peoples’ ability to utilize shared resources. Instead of assigning legal personhood to nature, effective commons governance must integrate economic prosperity with social and environmental justice. Commons regulatory schemes should be optimized to foster equitable opportunities for wealth creation.