Rights of (Mother) Nature

Abstract

The Rights of Nature are positively regarded by many animal justice scholars as a rising theoretical and doctrinal framework to advance animals’ interests in law. This article will explore whether the Rights of Nature, as a framework that sometimes relies on the gendered concept of the Earth as a mother to ground its claims, is a feminist way to advance animals’ interests. Given sacrificial logics of motherhood in the human and animal realms, but also the respect that should extend to beings and the bonds they create in their socially reproductive roles as mothers, this article will explore what is at stake for feminist animal advocates in contemporary Rights of Nature campaigns for non-human beings that rely on the figure and trope of motherhood. Would a legal doctrine based on respecting the Earth because the Earth is ‘our’ mother advance the interests of animals, many of whom are feminized and also burdened by human gendered scripts and expectations around motherhood? Could a relational mothering discourse surface the plight of animals? Could it respect feminist concerns about gender expectations for human mothers? The article will explore the significance of such themes and questions in view of proposing a feminist animal studies filter to guide the future development and marshalling of the Rights of Nature in policy and legal advocacy for animals and to inform debates within feminist animal studies in general.