Nature as a Legal Person: Legal Transformations to Respond to Multi-Ethnic Societies or to Changes in Western Ontology?

Abstract

One of the main transformations that the Law has undergone in recent decades refers to the recognition of nature (or elements of it) as a legal person. However, these innovations have not always occurred in the same circumstances and, apparently, one of the principal differences are determine by the presence of ethnic peoples amid such changes. This paper seeks to identify when the Law has created these new subjects to respond to the requirements of multi-ethnic societies, and when it does because of transformations of the same Western Society. All of this will be explained considering certain cases, mainly, in New Zealand, India, Argentina and Colombia.