Should Trees Have Standing? Law, Morality, and the Environment

by Stone, Christopher D.

• ISBN13: 9780199736072
• ISBN10: 0199736073
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Originally published in 1972, Should Trees Have Standing? was a rallying point for the then burgeoning environmental movement, launching a worldwide debate on the basic nature of legal rights that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, in the 35th anniversary edition of this remarkably influential book, Christopher D. Stone updates his original thesis and explores the impact his ideas have had on the courts, the academy, and society as a whole. At the heart of the book is an eminently sensible, legally sound, and compelling argument that the environment should be granted legal rights. For the new edition, Stone explores a variety of recent cases and current events--and related topics such as climate change and protecting the oceans--providing a thoughtful survey of the past and an insightful glimpse at the future of the environmental movement. This enduring work continues to serve as the definitive statement as to why trees, oceans, animals, and the environment as a whole should be bestowed with legal rights, so that the voiceless elements in nature are protected for future generations.

Author Biography

Christopher D. Stone is J. Thomas McCarthy Trustee Chair in Law at the University of Southern California School of Law. A leading advocate for the environment, he has written for Harper's, The New York Times, The Nation, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Should Trees Have Standing?: Toward Legal, Rights Fob Natural Objects	p. 1
Introduction: The Unthinkable	p. 1
Toward Rights for the Environment	p. 3
The Legal-Operational Aspects	p. 4
What It Means to Be a Holder of Legal Rights	p. 4
The Rightlessness of Natural Objects at Common Law	p. 5
Toward Having Standing in Its Own Right	p. 8
Toward Recognition of Its Own Injuries	p. 13
Toward Being a Beneficiary in Its Own Right	p. 16
Toward Rights in Substance	p. 17
Do We Really Have to Put It That Way?	p. 22
The Psychic and Socio-Psychic Aspects	p. 23
Does the Climate Have Standing?	p. 33
The Climate as Client	p. 33
The Law of Standing: An Overview	p. 35
Duty Owing and Zone of Interests	p. 37
Injury in Fact	p. 38
Causation	p. 42
Redressability	p. 43
Standing to Force Disclosures	p. 44
Standing's Many Fronts	p. 49
Ordinary Standing for "Ordinary" Economic Injury	p. 50
Rights-Based Claims	p. 51
Executive Standing in International Affairs	p. 53
Citizens' Standing to Force the Executive's Hand in Foreign Affairs	p. 54
Citizens' Standing to Force the Executive's Hand in Domestic Affairs	p. 55
Standing by a Designated Trustee	p. 57
Citizens' Standing to Force the Trustee's Hand	p. 57
Citizens' Standing without Statutory Basis (Public Trust Doctrine)	p. 59
Standing of Noncitizens	p. 60
Suits in the Name of Natural Objects	p. 61
Existing Law	p. 61
Could Standing for Nonhumans Be Expanded?	p. 62
Would Expanded Standing in the Name of Nonhumans Make Any Difference?	p. 64
Filing Suits on Behalf of Nature Is a Better Fit with the Real Grievances	p. 65
Suits on Behalf of Nature Are Better Suited to Moral Development	p. 65
Is Legal Representation on Behalf of Animals and Nature Really Feasible?	p. 66
The Advantages of Special, Statutorily Provided Guardians and Trustees	p. 66
The Guardian Approach May Be Superior to the Alternative Standing Strategies from the Perspective of Subsequent Preclusion Doctrines	p. 68
Advance Warning: The "Canary in the Mine" Rationale	p. 68
Protecting Third-Party Interests in Negotiations and Settlements	p. 69
So, Where Do We Stand on Climate Change?	p. 70
Why Has Progress Seemed So Slow?	p. 70
What Role Could Climate-Related Litigation Play?	p. 74
Agriculture and the Environment: Challenges for the New Millennium	p. 79
Background	p. 79
The Historical Impact of Agriculture	p. 79
Aquaculture	p. 80
The Challenges	p. 81
Feeding Humanity	p. 81
Making Farmland Sustainable	p. 82
Reducing Agriculture's Environmentally Damaging Spillover Effects	p. 82
Tempering Conscription of the Nonagricultural Landscape	p. 82
The Promises and Threats of Technology	p. 83
Some Proposed Responses	p. 84
Sustaining Farmland	p. 84
Off-Farm Damage	p. 85
Reducing Pressure to Conscript the Nonagricultural Landscape	p. 85
Responding to Technological Innovation	p. 87
Conclusion	p. 88
Can the Oceans be Harbored?	p. 89
A Four-Step Plan for the Twenty-First Century	p. 89
The Fishing Sector	p. 89
The Fundamental Model: What Is Going Wrong?	p. 90
Step 1: Eliminate or Reduce Harvest-Increasing Subsidies	p. 92
Step 2: Improve and Extend Resource Management	p. 93
Step 3: Charge for Use	p. 93
Step 4: An Oceanic Trust, Fund	p. 95
Nonfishing Extraction Sectors	p. 96
Ocean Inputs	p. 97
A Guardian for the Oceans	p. 100
Conclusion	p. 101
Should We Establish A Guardian for Future Generations?	p. 103
Background: The Maltese Proposal	p. 103
Are Future Persons Really Voiceless?	p. 103
For Whom (or What) Should a Guardian Speak?	p. 104
Are the Moral Arguments Disparaging the Rights of Future Generations Critical to the Guardianship Proposal?	p. 105
Which "Future Generation" Is the Guardian's Principal?	p. 106
Who Should Serve as Guardian?	p. 106
Where Should a Guardian Be Situated?	p. 107
What Official Functions Should the Guardian Serve?	p. 108
What Should Be the Guardian's Objectives?	p. 109
Resource-Regarding Standards	p. 109
Utility-Regarding Standards	p. 110
Efficient Level of Harm and Harm-Avoidance	p. 110
Precaution Against Selected Calamities and Safeguarding Specific Assets	p. 111
Avoiding "Irreversible Harm"	p. 112
Conclusion	p. 112
Reflections on "Sustainable Development"	p. 115
The Underlying Geopolitical Strains	p. 116
What Are Our Obligations to the Future?	p. 117
Sustainable Development as a Welfare-Transfer Constraint	p. 118
Sustainable Development as Preservationism	p. 121
The Rights of the Living	p. 123
How To Heal the Planet	p. 125
Introduction	p. 125
Invasion of Territories	p. 128
Who Is Responsible?	p. 129
A Voice for the Environment: Global Commons Guardians	p. 130
A Case for Seals	p. 132
Financing the Repair: The Global Commons Trust Fund	p. 134
Implementing a Global Commons Trust Fund	p. 134
The Oceans	p. 135
The Atmosphere	p. 135
Space	p. 135
Biodiversity	p. 136
Areas in Need of the Global Commons Trust Fund	p. 137
Conclusion	p. 138
Is Environmentalism Dead?	p. 141
Introduction	p. 141
What Movement, Exactly, Is Faltering, and What Should Our Expectations Be?	p. 143
Indicators of Success and Failure	p. 144
Indices of Public Knowledge: Environmental Literacy	p. 145
Indicesof Attitudes and Preferences	p. 146
Indices of Willingness to Contribute to Environmental Groups	p. 147
Indices of Environmentally-Sensitized Individual Action	p. 147
Indices of Influence on Lawmaking	p. 149
Public Sector Funding	p. 151
Litigation	p. 151
Indices of Miscellaneous Actions	p. 152
Actual (Direct) Indicators of Environmental Health	p. 152
	p. 153
Self-Presentation	p. 154
Alarmism	p. 155
Image	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 156
Epilogue	p. 159
Notes	p. 177
Index	p. 237
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.