Tapestry Press
Should Trees Have Standing?
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Tapestry Press
Should Trees Have Standing?
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Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects 1974. Christopher D. Stone. Wm. Kaufmann, Inc. Publisher. 102p. Christopher Stone, professor of law at the University of Southern California, explains that the historic trend in law continually extends rights. What was earlier property such as slaves, wives and children, over time has been granted rights. Today, not only humans, but corporations, trusts, cities and nation-states are recognized to possess rights. Professor Stone proposes that legal rights be granted to forests, oceans, rivers and the natural environment as a whole. He argues for three criteria of rights holders: they require standing in their own right; their damages count in determining outcome; they can be beneficiaries of awards. A guardian could oversee the interests of the natural feature. In the forward Garrett Hardin notes, “change in an idea by which we have previously been unconsciously ruled becomes much more probable once the idea has been explicitly brought out into the open.” In a time of looming environmental crises, this thoughtful book promotes such change. Review written August 2003Back to Book Reviews
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