Eco Jurisprudence Monitor

The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor was developed through a truly collaborative process by people working all over the world. To learn more about this process…

About Us


The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor is an interactive online platform that compiles ecological jurisprudence initiatives globally as well as related resources for researchers, lawyers, policymakers, and activists. The rapid growth in the number of ecological law initiatives, as well as their varied legal and cultural expressions, presents an obstacle to those seeking to advance more ecocentric legal and governance systems to help enact the change needed to address looming environmental crises. Our intent is to broadly identify culturally distinct expressions of ecological jurisprudence and create common tools for analyzing them in order to foster global discussion and future ecological jurisprudence expressions, and to create a portal that inspires new research and frameworks.

Ecological jurisprudence refers to the contemporary global trend within legal theory and practice that rejects the anthropocentric assumptions traditionally underpinning much of the dominant legal traditions of the past few centuries. It encompasses rights of Nature and environmental personhood initiatives, the theory of Earth Jurisprudence, Wild Law and Earth Law(s), as well as ecocide, ecological civilization, ecological constitutionalism, place-based ecological governance approaches and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, a host of theoretical lenses such as (among the most notable) Ecological Law and Governance, Earth System Law, Earth System Governance, and Eco-feminism, a dialogue with Indigenous and non-Western legal traditions as to the ideas of both ‘Nature’ and ‘law’, and any other legal theory and praxis in direct juxtaposition to an anthropocentric worldview.

The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor seeks to make reliable information about emerging ecological law available to the world. We also aim to be inclusive of all worldviews and cultural expressions of ecological jurisprudence. To achieve these goals, we operate on a principle of open access and collaboration. This website and its data tools are the product of global teamwork, with researchers, lawyers, and citizen volunteers from countries around the world each contributing their part.

In turn, the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor makes these tools freely available to the world—granting open access to anyone with an internet connection. We believe that the information we gather should be accessible to everyone, as we believe that everyone is affected by the environmental crises we face, and everyone has a role to play in transforming legal and governance systems to address them. 

The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor uses a two-level system for organizing information, consisting of both a database (the Eco Jurisprudence Tracker) and a collection of pages with additional qualitative information. 

The database tracks individual eco jurisprudence initiatives and collects related legal documents. When initiatives are based on Oral Knowledge rather than written documents, we provide a space for oral tradition to be included by inviting a group representative to participate in a recorded interview that describes the initiative and explains the oral tradition. The legal documents and oral records are used to categorize initiatives according to various parameters, including type of ecological actor, type of ecological jurisprudence, type of legal provision, initiating actor, year, location, among many other parameters.

We recognize that legal documents only tell part of the story about how ecological jurisprudence is being implemented. We supplement this with contextual information about individual initiatives through summaries (provided on individual initiative pages) and links to multi-media resources in which those involved in each initiative tell their stories in their own words (e.g., see our On the Ground Stories and Strategies page).

The database is updated on a rolling basis as new information becomes available. The absence of data does not necessarily indicate the absence of Earth laws or legal initiatives. If you find any errors or omissions, please report them to info@ecojurisprudence.org. For information on our research process, see Our Story. To learn how we define the categories in our dataset, see our Codebook. See our Data Ethics Statement for how we use data.

The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor was developed by an international group of independent scholars and researchers through a collaborative process. These researchers comprise the Steering Committee of the GARN Academic Hub, which serves the Monitor’s managing board. If you would like to learn about other experts working in this space, see the GARN Academic Hub

For questions about the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor, contact:
Cat Haas
Director, Eco Jurisprudence Monitor
Project Lead, Eco Jurisprudence Tracker
info@ecojurisprudence.org

For questions about the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor Blog, contact:
Dr. Laura Burgers
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Amsterdam
Project Lead, Eco Jurisprudence Monitor Blog
l.e.burgers@uva.nl

For questions about the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor Podcast, contact:
Lucy Gavaghan
University of Edinburgh
Project Lead, Eco Jurisprudence Monitor Podcast
gavaghanlucy@gmail.com

Email us at info@ecojurisprudence.org to be added to our mailing list.


earth law center
UN Harmony with Nature
Ecological Law and Governance Association
GARN logo
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund


The Eco Jurisprudence Monitor is made possible through the generous support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.


Eco Jurisprudence Monitor FAQs