Exploring rights of nature for Antarctic governance : toward a rights-based approach for representation and protection

Abstract

This thesis investigates whether Rights of Nature (RoN) approaches can enhance the representation and environmental protection of Antarctica’s natural entities within the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). Against the backdrop of growing critiques of the ATS, it considers RoN as a potential means to address these governance gaps.Using a mixed-method approach, the research combines doctrinal, theoretical, and reform-oriented legal analyses with speculative design and case studies. It first examines the ATS’s limitations to environmental protection and representation. It then proceeds to explore how RoN, a concept recognising natural entities as legal subjects with rights, could fill these gaps in Antarctic governance.The thesis analyses three models of RoN, each assigned to a domestic RoN case. The Nature’s Rights Model is examined through the RoN in Ecuador, the Legal Personhood Model is viewed through the lens of RoN for the Mar Menor Lagoon in Spain, and the Living Legal Personhood Model is explored through the case study of Te Awa Tupua in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Each of these models offers a distinct mechanism for representation and protection. Lessons include the potential and risks of broad legal standing, the value of multi-level institutional guardianship for a structured approach to advocacy, and the importance of embedding value-based governance that recognises intrinsic ecological value. The research concludes that a mixed approach combining different RoN models could be carefully adapted to the ATS’s state-centric and consensus-based structures to enhance Antarctica’s environmental protection and representation. This transformation would result in doctrinal reforms, as well as the addition of procedural mechanisms that allow for dedicated guardians and substantive duties for proactive stewardship and restoration efforts. While attempting not to replace the ATS, such a RoN-based reform could reorient the governance approach towards an ecocentric model in which Antarctica is recognised and respected in its own right.