Reflecting on the Rights of Nature

with CDER’s Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil

Presented by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance in partnership with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights

This event is Thursday, September 8th, 2022 at 10:00 AM AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) - which is Wednesday, September 7th at 8:00 PM Eastern/5:00 PM Pacific.

CDER’s Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil are pioneers in the field of environmental law, and in the field of developing laws to protect the Rights of Nature and community rights. They are joining the Australian Earth Laws Alliance as they celebrate Earth Laws Month 2022 to engage in a discussion reflecting on more than 15 years of Rights of Nature activism and legal developments. This webinar is part of a month-long series of webinars, public lectures, workshops, virtual art exhibitions, and more - to explore and celebrate our relationship with the living world.

All are welcome. This virtual event is free. Register for the event here.

Speakers

Thomas Linzey-He serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. He is the co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, and is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” movement which has resulted in the adoption of hundreds of municipal laws across the United States. He also sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation. Linzey is a graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school’s public interest law award. He has been a finalist for the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award, and is a recipient of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union’s Golden Triangle Legislative Award. He is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, and is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Western and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

Mari Margil-She serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights and program manager for CDER’s International Center for the Rights of Nature. Margil previously served as the Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). In 2008, she served as a consultant to Ecuador’s national Constituent Assembly, helping to draft the world’s first Rights of Nature constitutional provisions. Margil is widely viewed as one of the leading global voices for the recognition of legally enforceable rights of ecosystems and nature. In her role with CDER, Margil works with national, state, and local governments, tribal nations, and indigenous communities in Australia, Sweden, the Philippines, Nepal, and elsewhere, to advance legal and policy frameworks regarding Rights of Nature. She has served as the primary drafter of a “Himalayas Bill of Rights” (Nepal) and other groundbreaking legislation.