[Full Interview] Ecocentric Law - with Abhayraj Naik

Today I’m joined by Abhayraj Naik, a lawyer and activist-academic who teaches interdisciplinary courses on climate, environment, justice, law, policy, and research methods in universities across India.

We discuss the trajectory of the Rights of Nature in India, and how this legal approach differentiates itself from other forms of environmental law. Abhayraj shares why the Rights of Nature can catalyse entirely new world views on the human relationship to nature, and the thrilling, often philosophical, new sets of questions they unleash (who gets to speak on behalf of nature? How might one cross examine nature?).

We engage in a fun thought experiment on who should at the table when creating representation for natural beings, the skills required to implement such laws, the Rights of the River Ganga, and how the RON movement intersects with other religious or indigenous cultural traditions.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/lawabhayraj-naik

Show Links:

• Law’s Nature paper
• Initiative for Climate Action 
• Kalpavriksh and the larger Vikalp Sangam network (great work in the rights of nature space in India, my collaborators Shrishtee Bajpai and Ashish Kothari in particular focus on this there)
• Inner Climate Academy 
• Rights of Rivers South Asia Alliance
• Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature
• People’s science movement from state of Kerala
• Ecocide

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

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