Earlier this month, a coalition of organizations and law professors submitted an amicus brief to the Constitutional Court of Ecuador calling for recognition of the rights of the Dulcepamba River.
Legal experts, including Windsor Law professor and Transnational Environmental Law and Policy Clinic (TELP) director Patrícia Galvão Ferreira, believe the decision will provide specific standards and limits for applying the Rights of Nature, which has been recognized in Ecuador's Constitution since 2008.
Ecuador was the first nation to recognize rights of nature in its Constitution, and now the Constitutional Court's ruling will set a precedent and become binding jurisprudence in Ecuador, forcing lower courts to follow its lead.
The TELP clinic aims to engage law students on both sides of the US-Canada border in projects related to environmental challenges that have a transnational perspective.