Opening Summary: A Legal Code of Care

Ethics of Care (Carol Gilligan and Bell Hooks)

Gilligan's work challenged Lawrence Kohlberg's justice-based moral development model, which found boys more morally mature than girls, arguing this reflected a masculine bias toward abstract principles over empathy and relationships Wikipedia Ethics of care
Ethics of care emphasizes responsiveness in relationships, paying attention, listening, and the human condition of connectedness and interdependence Ethics of care
The framework asks "how to respond?" rather than "what is just?" focusing on individual circumstances rather than generalized standards Wikipedia
Core scholars include: Nel Noddings, Joan Tronto, Eva Kittay, Sara Ruddick, and Virginia Held

Feminist Jurisprudence (Robin West, Patricia Williams, and Martha Minow)

Robin West's "Jurisprudence and Gender" argued the "human being" assumed by masculine jurisprudence contrasts entirely with the "woman" constructed by feminist theory Georgetown Law
In the 1970s–80s, feminist legal theory shifted from arguing cases to critiquing law itself as a construct of patriarchy University of Michigan Law School
Patricia Williams' "The Alchemy of Race and Rights" (1991)
Martha Minow's "Making All the Difference" (1991) on inclusion/exclusion in American law

Critical Race Theory & Intersectionality (Kimberlé Crenshaw)

Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" in 1989 to explain how interlocking systems of power affect those most marginalized, demonstrating that discrimination against Black women is more complicated than simple combination of misogyny and racism Wikipedia
Intersectionality is a lens to see where power comes and collides, interlocks and intersects Columbia Law School
Framework rooted in Black Feminism and Critical Race Theory

Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace & Seven Generations Principle

Within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy framework, decisions by the council of chiefs were mandated to consider impact on the seventh generation yet to come as an operational requirement for legitimate governance Sustainability-directory Toolshed
The Great Law of Peace (Gayanashagowa) is grounded in natural law
- governance not merely for people, but with and for the natural world Substack
The Great Law of Haudenosaunee Confederacy is credited as a contributing influence on the American Constitution,
- though the Founding Fathers left out the Seven Generations principle ICTinc Molly Larkin
Wampum belts encode agreements, laws, and values in beadwork meant to endure "as long as the rivers flow" Substack

Ecuador's Rights of Nature (2008 Constitution)

Ecuador became the first country to recognize legal personhood of nature (Pachamama), ensuring maintenance and regeneration of nature's life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes Columbia Undergraduate Law Review Garn
Rooted in Andean Indigenous worldview of Pachamama and the principle of sumak kawsay (Kichwa for "good way of living" or buen vivir), building a new form of coexistence in harmony with nature Ecojurisprudence Wikipedia
Any person, people, community, or nationality can demand recognition of rights for nature before public organisms Garn

New Zealand's Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River, 2017)

The Whanganui River was declared a legal person with rights, powers, and duties and liabilities of a legal person, recognized as an indivisible and living whole from mountains to sea Wcel Ecojurisprudence
Based on the Māori understanding of the river as a spiritual ancestor of the Whanganui Iwi, with phrase "I am the River, and the River is me" Taylor & Francis Online Wcel
Te Urewera (formerly a National Park) was declared a legal entity in 2014 with "all the rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person," with purpose to protect it "for its intrinsic worth" Earth Law Center Taylor & Francis Online

Christopher Stone's "Should Trees Have Standing?" (1972)

Stone described the gradual expansion of legal personhood in Western legal tradition from exclusively white adult men to including children, women, BIPOC, and indigenous nations Lexology
Stone argued that the environment should be granted legal rights, with natural objects bestowed legal rights through appointment of special guardians to protect "voiceless" elements in nature Environment & Society Portal Amazon

South Africa's Transformative Constitutionalism (1996)

South Africa's post-apartheid Constitution is celebrated for extensive embrace of rights including justiciable social and economic rights, designed to redress historical injustices Oxford Academic Adjuris
Transformative constitutionalism defined as "long-term project of constitutional enactment, interpretation and enforcement to transform a country's political social institutions and power relations in a democratic, participatory and egalitarian direction" Up

Steven Donziger v. Chevron

Donziger won a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron in Ecuador for massive contamination in Lago Agrio region
- Chevron responded by putting him under house arrest for two years The Intercept
Chevron
- hired hundreds of lawyers from 60 firms
- froze his bank accounts
- placed a lien on his apartment
- had him disbarred
- subjected him to nearly 1,000 days of arbitrary detention The Intercept The Intercept
Judge Lewis Kaplan
- held shares in mutual funds containing Chevron stock
- bypassed random assignment to handpick Judge Loretta Preska;
- appointed a private law firm (Seward & Kissel) with likely Chevron ties to prosecute Donziger after Southern District declined The Intercept
UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded Steven's deprivation of liberty was arbitrary, identifying the situation as legal harassment in the form of a SLAPP suit Amnesty International Amnesty International