Qualification Type: PhD
Location: Colchester
Funding for: UK Students, Self-funded Students
Funding amount: Living costs stipend at the UK Research and Innovation recommended level per year. The stipend for 2024-25 is £19,237. The rate for 2025-26 TBA.
Hours: Full Time
Placed On: 21st November 2024
Closes: 7th February 2025
Reference: 11364 Law_Sociology October 2025
Project Overview
This is an opportunity to conduct fully funded interdisciplinary research under the ‘Sustainable Transitions – Leverhulme Doctoral Training Programme’ at the University of Essex.
This project will examine Rights of Nature (RoN), drawing from both legal and sociological perspectives. The RoN movement has gained traction in recent years as a novel approach to environmental protection and the rethinking of nature-human relationships. Originating in the rights movements of communities in America and Indigenous Peoples in South America, rights of nature laws were then adopted around the globe. The initiative behind granting rights or personhood to nature is, clearly, an attempt to safeguard ecological systems. More fundamentally, it represents a deeper philosophical shift that redefines nature as a legal subject, rather than merely an object or resource for human exploitation.
By recognizing nature as a rights-holder, the aim of RoN initiatives is to establish a more sustainable and respectful relationship between humans and nature. In addition to legal protection, these initiatives seek to promote a cultural and ethical shift whereby nature is seen as a living entity with intrinsic value. Such a cultural shift requires sociological exploration of how different stakeholders, institutions and communities have understood, realised or contested RoN in practice.
The proposal should seek to analyse aspects of the legal developments relating to RoN within their sociological and cultural contexts.
Interdisciplinary Focus and Methods
The project will use legal methodologies suitable for the aims of the research, as appropriate (e.g. doctrinal, normative, comparative), to examine the characteristics, challenges and opportunities of the RoN movement; as well as qualitative sociological methodologies to, for example, unravel the dynamics around people, power, justice and institutions involved in relation to the RoN movement.
Person Specification
This opportunity would suit a candidate with a degree/ background in law, with knowledge of international law and human rights. The successful candidate should also have an interest in understanding the cultural and sociological aspects of RoN. It is not necessary for the candidate to have prior training in sociology or qualitative methods as this will be provided in the programme.
