Corporate rights and state preemption can make it difficult or impossible for communities to protect themselves from harm. Will Falk and Sean Butler lay out how the structure of the legal system makes meaningful environmental protection illegal in this excellent article about Rights of Nature and Community Rights.
“To expect corporations to function differently than they do is to engage in magical thinking. We may as well expect a clock to cook, a car to give birth, or a gun to plant flowers. The specific and explicit function of for-profit corporations is to amass wealth. The function is not to guarantee that children are raised in environments free of toxic chemicals, nor to respect the autonomy or existence of indigenous peoples, nor to protect the vocational or personal integrity of workers, nor to design safe modes of transportation, nor to support life on this planet. Nor is the function to serve communities. It never has been and never will be.”
Read the rest of the article at DGR News Service.
Rights for Lake Erie? Why corporate rights and preemption must go
