| Summary: | Legal recognition of nature or some part of the natural world as having legal personality can be seen emerging in various doctrines and developments around the world. The historical concept of public trust has been expanded to make the natural world or parts of it the beneficiary of protection, while various "rights of nature" have been incorporated into the constitutions of several countries. A growing number of lawsuits and other projects are seeking to have non-human primates and other animals declared legal persons, while in New Zealand a river has been recognized as a person. The consequences, benefits and drawbacks, of this approach to environmental protection are outlined but need further study.
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