Contracts with Nature

Project period: 2024

The idea of nature as a holder of rights is no longer far-fetched; rather, it occupies a broad position in legal discourse and is being put to the practical test in individual jurisdictions. While Christopher Stone was still thinking of tortious protection in his pioneering article “Should Trees Have Standing?”, a constitutional perspective is now often in the foreground. The question of whether rights of nature can also be contractual in character has, however, not yet been examined in detail.

Contract negotiations allow us – and perhaps even force us – to better understand the interests of another person and to take them into account in our own decision-making. In economic terms, contracts are a means of internalizing externalities. The model depends largely on who qualifies as a party to the negotiation process. Economic literature traditionally refers to other people and to their individual and presumably self-serving interests. Yet the contract model may help us to identify ways in which humans could align their interests with nature and other species so as to pursue sustainable coexistence; it may also facilitate dialogue on the question of how to resolve conflicts between human and non-human interests.