Legal Rights for Non-Human Beings?: Theological Impulses for Ecological Justice as a Key Concept of an Ecocentric Ethics

For more than five decades, representatives of the animal liberation movement and of a biocentric or even ecocentric perspective have been demanding that legal rights should be recognised for non-human beings. In 1780, the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham was the first to argue in favour of granti...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jähnichen, Traugott 1959- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Univ. 2023
In: Scriptura
Year: 2023, Volume: 122, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-9
Further subjects:B Participation
B Sustainability
B Theocentrism
B Integrity of Creation
B Dignity of Nature
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:For more than five decades, representatives of the animal liberation movement and of a biocentric or even ecocentric perspective have been demanding that legal rights should be recognised for non-human beings. In 1780, the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham was the first to argue in favour of granting legal rights to animals (cf. Sezgin 2016). More generally, the United States jurist Christopher Stone (cf. Stone 1972) demanded legal rights for trees and for all elements of nature. Such concepts have been legally implemented in a few cases since the beginning of the 21st century, although there are still fundamental questions and differentiating rejections of the idea of legal rights for nature. This article develops a theological-ethical argumentation for the recognition of dignity for non-human beings with the consequence of granting legal rights in an ecocentric perspective.
ISSN:2305-445X
Contains:Enthalten in: Scriptura
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.7833/122-1-2140