Sustainable Development: Responding to the Research Challenge in the Land of the Long White Cloud, Aotearoa New Zealand

Author(s):  
Richard F. S. Gordon
2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1705-1730
Author(s):  
Mereana Barrett ◽  
Krushil Watene ◽  
Patty McNicholas

PurposeThis paper aims to set the scene for an emerging conversation on the Rights of Nature as articulated by a philosophy of law called Earth Jurisprudence, which privileges the whole Earth community over the profit-driven structures of the existing legal and economic systems.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a wide range of thought from literature relating to philosophy, humanities, environmental economics, sustainable development, indigenous rights and legal theory to show how Earth Jurisprudence resonates with two recent treaties of Waitangi settlements in Aotearoa New Zealand that recognise the Rights of Nature.FindingsIndigenous philosophies have become highly relevant to sustainable and equitable development. They have provided an increasingly prominent approach in advancing social, economic, environmental and cultural development around the world. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Maori philosophies ground the naming of the Te Urewera National Park and the Whanganui River as legal entities with rights.Practical implicationsRecognition of the Rights of Nature in Aotearoa New Zealand necessitates a radical re-thinking by accounting researchers, practitioners and educators towards a more ecocentric view of the environment, given the transformation of environmental law and our responsibilities towards sustainable development.Originality/valueThis relates to the application of Earth Jurisprudence legal theory as an alternative approach towards thinking about integrated reporting and sustainable development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 413
Author(s):  
Suzanne Robertson

Book review of Elisabeth McDonald, Rhonda Powell, Māmari Stephens and Rosemary Hunter (eds) Feminist Judgments of Aotearoa New Zealand – Te Rino: A Two-Stranded Rope (Hart Publishing, Portland, 2017).


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