In September 2017, an unusual lawsuit was filed in Denver’s U.S. District Court. The plaintiff asked for recognition of the right “to exist, flourish, regenerate, and naturally evolve.” Which isn’t very extraordinary language for a court case, but this particular plaintiff can’t talk, read, or even take a seat in the courtroom—because it’s hard for the Colorado River to sit still.
Granting legal rights to a body of water? Even if it were possible, how on earth would one enforce it? Many felt the Colorado River lawsuit was spurious, too ridiculous for serious consideration. One senator complained “this sort of nonsense undercut[s] credible conservationists.” But in his 2017 book The Rights of Nature: How a Legal Revolution Could Save the World, corporate-turned-environmental lawyer David R. Boyd argues that not only are these lawsuits credible, they’re picking up momentum around the world.
Last March, in what was believed to be a world first, New Zealand granted legal rights to a
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