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Key research themes
1. How are legal personhood and rights of rivers being established and operationalized to protect river ecosystems and foster environmental justice?
This theme investigates the emerging global movement to confer legal rights and personhood on rivers, granting them standing in courts and legal systems to protect their ecological integrity. The research explores diverse legal interpretations, constitutional paradigms, court rulings, and legislative measures that recognize rivers as legal entities. It analyzes the challenges in defining river rights, representation mechanisms, and the balance between anthropocentric legal frameworks and indigenous relational worldviews. Understanding these dynamics is crucial to advancing river protection through enforceable legal frameworks that can complement traditional environmental laws and foster socio-environmental justice.
Key finding: This paper reviews pioneering global instances where courts and legislation have granted rivers legal rights and personhood (e.g., New Zealand, Ecuador, India, Colombia), highlighting the necessity for a paradigm shift from... Read more
Key finding: Eckstein analyzes the intellectual, legal, and practical complexities arising from the conferral of legal personhood on rivers, including questions of representation, rights enforceability, and potential liabilities. The... Read more
Key finding: Through comparative case studies of Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador, this work critiques existing Western human rights-based constitutions and argues for embracing a new Latin American constitutionalism that recognizes Nature's... Read more
Key finding: This article documents the evolution of river rights globally by reviewing case law and legislation across multiple countries (e.g., New Zealand, India, Ecuador, Bangladesh, Canada, USA, Australia). It identifies diverse... Read more
Key finding: Focusing on the Mekong region, this empirical and theoretical paper argues that claims to river rights cannot rest solely on essentialist or moral absolutism but require procedural legitimacy obtained through iterative... Read more
2. What are the socio-political dynamics and grassroots governance strategies involved in river defense and water justice movements?
This theme explores how grassroots collectives, indigenous communities, and coalitions engage in river protection and water justice, particularly through modes of river commoning. Research examines the interplay between civil society movements, state governance structures, and cultural knowledges, emphasizing Indigenous custodianship, dialogic knowledge production, and legal contestations. It addresses how socio-political contexts shape river governance and considers the diversity of collective actions that challenge or collaborate with formal state-led water management, thereby providing critical insights into bottom-up strategies for ecological and social equity.
Key finding: Analyzing river protection initiatives in Thailand, Spain, Ecuador, and Mozambique, this ethnographic study reveals diverse grassroots river commoning practices that simultaneously confront and engage state actors at multiple... Read more
Key finding: This collaborative narrative study documents Indigenous-led dialogue processes linking biophysical river features, Indigenous custodianship (First Law), and artistic expression in two Australian rivers—Baaka and Martuwarra.... Read more
Key finding: This paper situates New Water Justice Movements (NWJMs) as disruptive, transdisciplinary coalitions mobilizing alternative river-society ontologies that oppose large-scale damming, pollution, and socio-environmental injustice... Read more
3. How is the human right to water conceptualized, expanded, and operationalized within international and domestic human rights frameworks to address socio-economic and environmental challenges?
This theme focuses on the evolving discourse and legal frameworks underpinning the human right to water, especially its scope beyond domestic use to include productive uses, environmental justice, and Indigenous rights. It evaluates the normative content, implementation challenges, and political debates surrounding water as a human right, emphasizing multi-sectoral and pluralistic approaches. The research explores how international recognition shapes national policies, the indivisibility of water-related rights, and critiques anthropocentric and Western-centric biases, thereby informing more inclusive and effective water governance strategies.
Key finding: This paper advances a holistic interpretation of the human right to water that includes both domestic and productive (livelihood) water uses, particularly in rural and peri-urban contexts. Empirical data from Senegal, Kenya,... Read more
Key finding: This essay critically analyzes the human right to water (HRW) from environmental justice perspectives, highlighting its potential to challenge marketization and inequities in water access but also underscoring pitfalls... Read more
Key finding: This article synthesizes the main debates surrounding the human right to water—its legal scope, political effectiveness against privatization, and the need to decolonize its Western, anthropocentric framework. It explicates... Read more
Key finding: Based on multi-region empirical research, this study demonstrates that the global human right to water is constructed through diverse, often disconnected local, national, and international struggles rather than solely by... Read more