The
Independent
June
13, 2012
In
1992 the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro designed international legal protocol
for the protection of the environment. Twenty years later, British barrister
Polly Higgins believes those laws have failed.
“Environmental
law as it stands is clearly not fit for purpose,” she says.
But
her sweet Scottish brogue has only tones of optimism. Her perpetual smile
reveals faith in her proposed solution – an international crime of ‘ecocide.’
Seven
years ago, working as a corporate lawyer in London, she found herself fighting
for things she didn’t believe in. She was representing clients who looked at
the environment as collateral damage in pursuit of profit.
So
Higgins became an international environmental lawyer. She has taken on one
client, pro bono, and became advocate for the earth.
“I
recognised that we don’t have legal duty of care for the earth. It doesn’t
exist. I realised that the earth was in need of a good lawyer,” she says.
This
month she will travel to the Rio+20 summit, as an official observer, to
petition for the legal rights of the planet to be acknowledged under her
proposed law of ecocide.
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