Reuss-Initiative launched on 26th April 2025

The Reuss and all public waters in the canton of Lucerne shall be granted fundamental rights and legal personality. This is what our popular initiative in the canton of Lucerne demands. This would close a significant loophole in the legal system, because unlike humans, companies or public institutions, non-human nature has no legal personality and no fundamental rights.

‘A good water protection law is of little use if the waters cannot invoke it because they lack legal personality,’ said co-initiator Markus Schärli, president of the Rechtsperson Reuss association, at the launch of the initiative on the banks of the Reuss. A legal system must be fair, and it is not fair if non-human nature is excluded from it.
In view of species extinction, we need to find a new balance with nature, according to co-initiator Rahel Estermann, a member of the cantonal parliament for the Green Party. ‘To do this, we must recognise nature and give it rights. We need to readjust our human-centric world view.’ She points out that the idea of granting legal personality to bodies of water has already been implemented in Spain (Mar Menor) and New Zealand (Whanganui).

‘The initiative offers an opportunity to reflect on our relationship with our environment,’ says co-initiator and lawyer Angelo Breda, assistant at the University of Lucerne's Faculty of Law.

The idea of giving nature rights is not new. As early as 1972, judge and law professor Christopher Stone proposed in a groundbreaking article in the Southern California Law Review that trees should also have legal personality and fundamental rights.
In the meantime, the vision has also gained momentum in Europe and is being intensively discussed in relevant networks such as the ‘Network Rights of Nature’ and the ‘Confluence of European Water Bodies’. The nature and animal welfare association Rechtsperson Reuss is also part of these networks. It is campaigning in the canton of Lucerne to grant non-human beings legal personality and fundamental rights in the constitution in order to improve their effective protection in the long term.

Out of concern for our ecosystems, Cantonal Councillor Rahel Estermann brought this discussion to the cantonal parliament with a motion in 2023. According to Estermann, the relationship between humans and nature is one of the central political and social challenges of this century. The Reuss Initiative is the logical next step in addressing this challenge.

In addition to the Rechtsperson Reuss association and the Lucerne Green Party, the Reuss initiative is also supported by the Forum for Ethics and Ecology. ‘We must reconnect with nature and live in harmony with it. We can only achieve this if we also respect it as an equal subject within our legal system,’ says Hansruedi Aregger, co-president of the forum.
​
The initiative is also supported by Klimagrosseltern Zentralschweiz, Sentience, Tier im Fokus, Netzwerk Rechte der Natur, Confluence of European Water Bodies, YERA Hub and Rights of Mother Earth.

TEXT OF THE INITIATIVE to be integrated in the Constitution of the Canton of Luzern
Section 10 (3) (new)
The fundamental rights and legal personality of non-human nature are guaranteed in accordance with the cantonal constitution.

Section 10bis Fundamental rights and legal personality of water bodies (new)
1 The public water bodies of the canton are endowed with fundamental rights in accordance with paragraph 2 and legal personality.
2 Water bodies have the right to exist and to ecological integrity.
3 The law regulates the practical implementation. It shall be designed in such a way as to ensure the effective and independent assertion and enforcement of the rights granted.