Earth Law: Community Bill of Rights
While a law of Ecocide is an example of International Earth Law, there are examples of Earth Law happening at local levels too. Community Bills of Rights have been pioneered in the US by the Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund (CELDF) in recent years. They are local laws to elevate the rights of communities and nature above corporate rights, and they have proved effective in empowering communities to allow them to determine whether corporate developments, such as fracking, can proceed.
Community Bills of Rights are an example of bottom up legal systematic change. Where communities feel that their voices are not being heard Community Bills of Rights redirect rights, so that people and planet are put first. This has parallels in successful rights based movements like the abolitionists and the suffragettes.
In the UK, communities can be empowered in the same way as has happened under a Community Bill of Rights in the US. Community Chartering in the UK is now emerging. You can read more at communitychartering.org
In the UK, a Community Bill of Rights changes the legal framework in two fundamental ways:
it enshrines the right to local community self government by giving the local people the right to decide what happens in their communities; it recognize the rights of nature. By identifying that nature has intrinsic value, and is not merely property a Community Bill of Rights is an example of Earth law which complements and supports law to eradicate ecocide at the international level.
While a law of Ecocide is an example of International Earth Law, there are examples of Earth Law happening at local levels too. Community Bills of Rights have been pioneered in the US by the Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund (CELDF) in recent years. They are local laws to elevate the rights of communities and nature above corporate rights, and they have proved effective in empowering communities to allow them to determine whether corporate developments, such as fracking, can proceed.
Community Bills of Rights are an example of bottom up legal systematic change. Where communities feel that their voices are not being heard Community Bills of Rights redirect rights, so that people and planet are put first. This has parallels in successful rights based movements like the abolitionists and the suffragettes.
In the UK, communities can be empowered in the same way as has happened under a Community Bill of Rights in the US. Community Chartering in the UK is now emerging. You can read more at communitychartering.org
In the UK, a Community Bill of Rights changes the legal framework in two fundamental ways:
it enshrines the right to local community self government by giving the local people the right to decide what happens in their communities; it recognize the rights of nature. By identifying that nature has intrinsic value, and is not merely property a Community Bill of Rights is an example of Earth law which complements and supports law to eradicate ecocide at the international level.
