Jag är floden och floden är jag - en komparativ studie av floder med status som juridisk person i Nya Zeeland och Indien

Sammanfattning: During the last two decades regulations around the world has recognized nature’s rights and, in some cases, declared natural entities as legal persons. This paper studies and compares two examples of this global development in law: the rivers Whanganui in New Zealand and Ganga and Yamuna in the region of Uttarakhand in India. In short, the following results are found. Both regulations have been proceeded by litigations without the explicit purpose of providing the rivers with legal personality and both regulations are based in local traditional cosmovisions. The rivers are defined as legal and living persons. They have at least basic legal rights and responsibilities. Ganga and Yamuna explicitly have rights beyond these, but it is currently unclear to what extent. The rivers are represented by their human faces, a kind of guardian, who represents them and promotes their health and well-being. Whanganui is represented by a special newly created guardian created through law, financed by the crown and supported by several local collaborative groups. Ganga and Yamuna are represented by already existing local government authorities without receiving any additional funding. A lot of details regarding these regulations are unclear and their adequacy can be contested from an environmental protection perspective. Perhaps these regulations, although yet in an undeveloped form, can still be the beginning of a new, more equal and more percipient approach to nature.