Rights of Nature: Legal Philosophy Meets Democracy The Swiss Cantonal Reuss-Initiative

The Reuss-Initiative, a popular initiative to change the constitution of the Swiss Canton of Lucerne aims to grant public water bodies legal personality and fundamental rights for their existence and ecological integrity. Existing environmental laws are ineffective because the waters lack legal standing to challenge political pressure in court. The call for legal personality and fundamental rights is based not only on legal philosophy but on political grounds. The paper explains why it makes sense from a democratic perspective to give legal personality in a first step to non-sentience water bodies instead of sentient beings.