Changing Tides In Mar Menor? Is the legal personhood model a reflection of symptomatic waves or systemic currents considering environmental protection legislation

Abstract

Mar Menor is Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon, despite being declared a Natura 2000 and Ramsar site in addition to other na.onal environmental protection legislation, it has become severely degraded over the past decades. This thesis seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the perceived shortcomings of environmental protection legislation by participants and how the legal person model, as a form of aWributing rights to nature, could be a beWer solution as an environmental protection tool. In 2022, Mar Menor was granted legal standing through a popular legislative initiative (ILP) that originated from the University of Murcia, which pioneered the right of nature movement in Europe. Due to the increasing importance of halting environmental degradation and transitioning into an increasingly just future which allows both nature and society to thrive, it is important to examine and explore novel ways of protecting nature and incorporating it differently into our governance structures. Drawing on evidence from semi-structured interviews with 10 stakeholders, this study reveals the participants' mul.-layered understanding of the problem with previous environmental legislation. In addition to revealing diverse views on the suitability of the legal person model as a new environmental protection tool. Due to the exploratory nature of this work, we focus on laying the groundwork for future more in-depth studies, which will potentially be able to draw conclusions on the impact of this novel approach. Drawing from existing concepts, we contextualise and conceptualise the findings, illustrating the problem using the Iceberg model and depicting the potential underlying causes of degradation of Mar Menor. Additionally, we reflect on the possible leverage that the legal personhood of Mar Menor is perceived to unfold regarding the respective layers of the developed iceberg model.