Relational personhood: a conception of legal personhood with insights from disability rights and environmental law

Arstein-Kerslake, Anna; O’Donnell, Erin; Watson, Joanne; Kayess, Rosemary

doi:10.1080/10383441.2021.2003744

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Personhood is not related to functional or physical capabilities, and impairment should not result in denial of dignity (Pothier & Devlin, 2006;Rioux & Valentine, 2006;Vorhaus, 2015;Yamin, 2016). Acknowledgement of personhood is critically important for people with disability, who have historically been denied basic human rights (Arstein-Kerslake et al, 2021), through erasure of their role as decision-makers with authority over their own lives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Normative and unbalanced power dynamics are common in healthcare settings, particularly in-patient hospital settings. However, when healthcare practitioners and clinicians acknowledge personhood through the delivery of human rights, the power dynamics become more relational and interdependent rather than dominant and oppressive ( Arstein-Kerslake et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Dignity and the Importance of Acknowledgement of Personhood for People With Disability

Chapman,

Dixon,

Ehrlich

et al. 2023

Qual Health Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exploring the intricate relationship between individual and collective experiences, this study explores dignity from the perspectives of people with disability. Using an extreme citizen science approach, we engaged people with disability as active partners in gathering data through qualitative surveys and focus groups. Framework Analysis was employed to ensure the validity of findings while privileging the voices of people with lived experience of disability. Dignity was contingent on the acknowledgement of personhood and the delivery of human rights. Our research identified five key aspects to maintain and protect dignity: (1) acknowledging personhood; (2) recognising people with disability as decision-makers of their lives; (3) realising the right to access information; (4) maintaining the right to privacy; and (5) eliminating or minimising barriers to accessibility and inclusion. Undignified experiences that resulted from a lack of acknowledgement negatively affected participants’ wellbeing, and healthcare settings were identified as particularly challenging environments for dignity. These findings have significant implications for healthcare systems and services within an international and interdisciplinary context. They emphasise the need for adaptable, flexible services, co-designed with people with lived experience of disability. Addressing organisational constraints, resource limitations, and expectations is paramount to ensuring dignity is maintained through the acknowledgement of personhood and safeguarding of human rights.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dignity and the Importance of Acknowledgement of Personhood for People With Disability

Chapman,

Dixon,

Ehrlich

et al. 2023

Qual Health Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Since the preferences and interests of rivers are unintelligible in Western fora, this approach offers a vehicle to centre and amplify the voices of rivers through Indigenous relationships to place. This mechanism for voicing rivers' interests interlocks with "relational personhood," which (re)conceives of personhood as interdependent rather than atomistic (Arstein-Kerslake et al, 2021). The concept of relational personhood also challenges Western anthropocentric notions of personhood as a characteristic exercised by individuals in a vacuum absent of communal supports.…”

Section: Riverine Rights and Rationality: Connecting Relational Perso...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The River’s Legal Personhood: A Branch Growing on Canada’s Multi-Juridical Living Tree

Ambers

2022

TAR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Relationships with rivers in British Columbia are often imbued with social and material toxicity. Learning from three sources of law in British Columbia—Indigenous, Canadian, and international law—this article draws out one potential remedy to the imbalanced relationships between humans and rivers through exploring the viability of declaring the rights of nature in accordance with the socio-cultural and doctrinal frameworks embedded in these three sources of law. By taking seriously storied precedents and governing practices from the ‘Namgis, Heiltsuk, and W̱SÁNEĆ Nations, this article is guided by their water relations, governance, and legal orders. In expanding Canadian conceptions of personhood, challenging anthropocentrism within section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and expanding section 35 constitutional protections, this article also leverages Canadian legal concepts and protections for remedying river relations. Drawing upon the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) further guides the process of affirming the rights of rivers, especially in light of legislation that has codified UNDRIP domestically. Braiding these three sources of law indicates that subsequent rights of nature cases should be rooted in the interpretative and analytical framework of Canada’s multi-juridical living tree.

show abstract

“…Tănăsescu's relational model of representation also aligns with recent developments in the concept of personhood. Rather than reinscribing the idea of personhood as an atomised individual, modelled on the White, wealthy, able-bodied man, personhood is beginning to be seen as relational, both in the wider, moral sense (24) and within the strictly legal framework (12). While accepting of the individual right to personhood, O'Donnell & Arstein-Kerslake (25) highlight the need of legal systems to evolve in a direction that recognizes that individual personhood is inherently relational.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While accepting of the individual right to personhood, O'Donnell & Arstein-Kerslake (25) highlight the need of legal systems to evolve in a direction that recognizes that individual personhood is inherently relational. In other words, it is the person (or living entity) seeking agency in relation to the individual or group supporting them what is crucial to realize such representation (12).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational representation: speaking with and not about Nature

Cano Pecharroman,

O'Donnell

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The transnational movement to recognise the rights of Nature continues to fuel experimentation by a growing number of jurisdictions in legal form, content, powers, and governance arrangements. In this paper, we focus on the mechanisms through which Nature is represented in various ways. There is enormous diversity in representational arrangements, but there is no clarity on precisely who should be representing Nature, or how Nature can be represented in human spaces, or even what the intent of this representation is (or should be). We describe a spectrum of representation that ranges from speaking about, to speaking for, to speaking with the natural entity. We develop a model of relational representation that shows the power of speaking with Nature to not only develop relations between the representatives and the natural entity, but also to enable a broader dialogue of knowledges with a wider pool of participants. By examining four case studies (the Mar Menor in Spain, the Rio Atrato in Colombia, the Birrarung/Yarra River in Australia and Te Awa Tupua/Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand), we show how these diverse representational models are moving towards the relational end of the spectrum, and identify the challenges and opportunities of relational representation of Nature.

show abstract

Relational personhood: a conception of legal personhood with insights from disability rights and environmental law

Cited by 8 publications

References 63 publications

Dignity and the Importance of Acknowledgement of Personhood for People With Disability

Dignity and the Importance of Acknowledgement of Personhood for People With Disability

The River’s Legal Personhood: A Branch Growing on Canada’s Multi-Juridical Living Tree

Relational representation: speaking with and not about Nature

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About