ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

AELA is delighted to be hosting this discussion with Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil from the Center for Democratic and Community Rights (CDER). Thomas and Mari are pioneers in the field of developing laws to protect the Rights of Nature and community rights. Join our discussion as they reflect on more than 15 years of Rights of Nature activism and legal developments.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

THOMAS LINZEY- serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. He is the co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, and is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” movement which has resulted in the adoption of hundreds of municipal laws across the United States. He also sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation. Linzey is a graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school’s public interest law award. He has been a finalist for the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award, and is a recipient of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union’s Golden Triangle Legislative Award. He is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, and is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Western and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

MARI MARGIL - serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights and program manager for CDER’s International Center for the Rights of Nature. Margil previously served as the Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). In 2008, she served as a consultant to Ecuador’s national Constituent Assembly, helping to draft the world’s first Rights of Nature constitutional provisions. Margil is widely viewed as one of the leading global voices for the recognition of legally enforceable rights of ecosystems and nature. In her role with CDER, Margil works with national, state, and local governments, tribal nations, and indigenous communities in Australia, Sweden, the Philippines, Nepal, and elsewhere, to advance legal and policy frameworks regarding Rights of Nature. She has served as the primary drafter of a “Himalayas Bill of Rights” (Nepal) and other groundbreaking legislation.

ABOUT EARTH LAWS MONTH

The Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) is hosting a huge month of events throughout September - webinars, public lectures, workshops, virtual art exhibitions and more - to explore and celebrate our relationship with the living world. To find out about all our events, please visit: https://events.humanitix.com/tours/earthlaws-month

ABOUT AELA

The Australian Earth Laws Alliance is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating Earth-centred systems change, by increasing the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred governance. Our programs include a focus on law, economics, education, ethics, Indigenous knowledge systems and the arts.

For more information, please visit our website: www.earthlaws.org.au
Or get in touch - aela@earthlaws.org.au