Giulia Sajeva, PhD | Università degli Studi di Palermo (original) (raw)

Monograph by Giulia Sajeva, PhD

This book analyses how protecting the rights of local communities can contribute to the alleviati... more This book analyses how protecting the rights of local communities can contribute to the alleviation of ecological harms through the development of an innovative 'Rights for Ecosystem Services' framework. Ecosystem services describe the range of social, ecological, and economic benefits that people obtain from nature. Recognising the role of local communities, and criticizing the very use of the term services, this book draws on arguments for the rights of nature. Against a market approach to nature conservation it thereby transforms the current 'Payments for Ecosystem Services' framework into a unique 'Rights for Ecosystem Services' framework. With reference to a case study from Sicily, the book develops such a framework as a crucial means through which the environmental role of local communities can be recognised, protected, and fostered. Employing insights from a range of disciplines, this book will appeal to scholars working in the areas of environmental law, legal theory, political philosophy, human rights, and environmental studies, as well as others with practical concerns in the fields of conservation science and local communities' rights.

The book discusses the development of the emerging concept of biocultural rights, which are defin... more The book discusses the development of the emerging concept of biocultural rights, which are defined as a basket of group rights. These rights are aimed at protecting the stewardship role that certain indigenous peoples and local communities have towards environment. This work provides an overview of the current ethical debate on different approaches towards the conservation of environment and the problematic definitions of indigenous peoples and local communities. The reader is taken through an intense but easy-to-read journey across the development and challenges of the concept of right and the birth of human rights, necessary to understand the sui generis features of biocultural rights. The book critically assesses the foundations, content, and implications of biocultural rights, and develops new perspectives and ideas concerning their potential applicability for promoting the socio-economic interests of indigenous peoples and local communities. It further explores the controversial relationship of interdependence and conflict between conservation of environment and protection of human rights.

Papers by Giulia Sajeva, PhD

Ragion Pratica, 2022

The concept of property is often understood solely as concerning private forms of property, disqu... more The concept of property is often understood solely as concerning private forms of property, disqualifying as res nullius all the rest. This monographic section offers readers the possibility to critically reflect – from a legal, anthropological, philosophical, and economic point of view – on the diversity of existing forms of property, with particular attention to the commons.
The articles here gathered generate from the Summer School on Owing
the land: from private property to commons hosted, and funded by the PhD programmes in Human Rights: evolution, protection and limits and in Legal Pluralisms of the Department of Law of the Università degli Studi di Palermo, and organized with the external support of the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG), in June 2021.
The Summer School rationale aimed at widening the typical list of
goods to be held under property rights, looking at the ownership of natural resources, including the genetic resources, international waters or trans-boundary waters and fisheries, cities of art, and the internet of things. The articles here included explore the tension between private property and commons and look at the critiques that have been raised towards different governance structures and their relevance for the conservation of the environment and the protection of human rights.

Ragion Pratica, 2022

marine resource users, holders, and guardians – small-scale and artisanal fisheries (SSFs) – with... more marine resource users, holders, and guardians – small-scale and artisanal fisheries (SSFs)
– with the aim of exploring some of the struggles they are currently facing and how they
are positioned vis à vis some of the solutions proposed to improve marine resources and
ecosystems management and conservation. In particular, the article looks at the expansion
of states’ sovereignty and private property to reduce unsustainable catches and at the
establishment of marine and coastal protected areas as instruments that often fall short
of sufficiently considering and respecting the livelihoods, culture, and practices of SSFs,
so being at risk of falling under the catchy name of ocean grabbing.
It is an explorative study, aimed at underlining the importance of keeping a political
perspective when looking at SSFs

Sajeva, G. (2022). In F. Girard, I. Hall, G. Filoche, & C. Frison (eds.), Biocultural Rights and Community Protocols. Protecting and Promoting Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Ways of Life. Routledge, 2022

Soft Power, 2021

This paper focuses on one of the answers that have been given to the question: what type of chang... more This paper focuses on one of the answers that have been given to the question: what type of change is to be pursued to limit human impact on the Earth while considering the needs of poor and disadvantaged communities? In particular it looks at a proposal that combines sustainable development approaches with market mechanisms and top-down technocratic responses: payments for Ecosystem Services frameworks. They have been criticized by many points of view and this paper questions, in particular, their very reliance on the market, questioning their appropriateness for the regulation of conservation activities and their interaction with local communities.

Diritto & questioni pubbliche, 2021

This special issue of the open access journal Diritto & Questioni Pubbliche contains the articles... more This special issue of the open access journal Diritto & Questioni Pubbliche contains the articles of legal theory and private law authors that have analysed the theory of Earth Jurisprudence and looked at the evolution and challenges of the recognition of rights to nature. The articles are authored by: Giulia Sajeva, Do we Need Earth Jurisprudence? Looking for Change in New Old Friends. - Sofia Ciuffoletti, Have trees got standing? A brief account of locus standi doctrines and case law in the environmental litigation on the basis of the principle of effectiveness of rights. - Matija Žgur, All the Earth’s legal children. Some sceptical comments about Nature’s legal personhood. - Giada Giacomini (former SCELG visiting researcher), The Interactive Dialogues of UN Harmony with Nature: for a paradigmatic shift to Earth-centred governance. - Rodrigo Míguez Núñez, Soggettività giuridica e natura. Spunti per una riflessione civilistica. - Livio Perra, L’antropomorfizzazione giuridica.

Diritto e questioni pubbliche, 2021

The article introduces the reader to the theory of Earth Jurisprudence through an analysis of the... more The article introduces the reader to the theory of Earth Jurisprudence through an analysis of the writings of Thomas Berry, Cormac Cullinan and Peter Burdon. After looking at the main revisions that the scholars of Earth Jurisprudence propose to the theory of law, the article recognizes the fact that they all move in the direction of natural law theories and questions the opportunity to take this path in order to change the relationship between human law and the environment.

Island Studies Journal, 2022

Islandness is often considered to be a disadvantage. However, it has helped the residents of isla... more Islandness is often considered to be a disadvantage. However, it has helped the residents of islands to delay, deter, and, in some cases, totally insulate themselves from COVID-19. While islanders have been quick to lock themselves down, this has had a tremendous impact on their connectivity and on tourism, which in many cases is their major economic sector. Yet, the association of islands with being safe, “COVID-19 free” zones has helped these spaces to be among the first destinations to restart the tourism economy once travel restrictions were lifted. After several weeks of lockdown, and with the COVID-19 threat still looming, social distancing remained the norm. Travellers were thus eager to immerse themselves in island environments while avoiding crowds and seeking small accommodation facilities in less densely populated rural areas to limit the risks of infection — a package offered by several islands in the central Mediterranean. With many travellers opting to travel close to ...

Sajeva G. Inside-out Internal and External Limits to Rights: does it matter?, in Diritto & Questioni Pubbliche, 20,2., 2019

Literature is rich on whether and how rights are limited by external considerations, such as othe... more Literature is rich on whether and how rights are limited by external considerations, such as other rights
or particularly important general interests. This article concentrates on what could be a different type of
limit of rights: internal limits stemming from the very foundations of a right. Its aim is to understand
whether these hypothetically different internal limits actually collapse on the idea of internal limits of
coherence theories; or whether they are equivalent, in terms of effects, to external limits to rights.
In order to show the origin of the troubling with internal limits, the article begins with a brief
introduction of biocultural rights of indigenous peoples and local communities and of the challenges
they encountered, allegedly, because of the internal limits that rose from their foundations. It then
concentrates on coherence theories and the internal limits they envisage, and continues with the analysis
of two examples – freedom of expression and parental rights – in order to understand whether turning
external limits into internal ones causes any change in the arising normative positions. Building on this
thought experiment, it tries to explain which of the sui generis features of biocultural rights are, actually,
due to their double foundation and which, instead, are generated by other, concealed operations. Finally,
after recognizing the complexities of the idea of care and stewardship between two subjects/interests, it
points out the more subtle implications of internal limits of rights, opening the way to considerations
concerning the way legal concepts are used and interpreted.

Sajeva G. Un passo avanti e un passo indietro nell’Antropocene: Rights for Ecosystem Services, comunità locali e REDD, in Diritto & Questioni Pubbliche, 19, 2., 2019

The author of the book When Rights Embrace Responsibilities. Biocultural Rights and Conservation ... more The author of the book When Rights Embrace Responsibilities. Biocultural Rights and Conservation of the Environment replies to the comments raised by Francesco Viola and Gianfrancesco Zanetti in the present journal issue. She also dwells on some topics of her book which deserve further clarification and speculates on possible future developments of biocultural rights.
For the review articles see:
Francesco Viola, Diritti e doveri. Nuove e vecchie prospettive nel dibattito sui diritti bioculturali. http://www.dirittoequestionipubbliche.org/page/2019_n19-1/15_rece_01_Viola.pdf
and
Gianfrancesco Zanetti, Diritti bioculturali: percorrendo la strada che separa diverse tradizioni. http://www.dirittoequestionipubbliche.org/page/2019_n19-1/16_rece_02_Zanetti.pdf

Sajeva G., G. Borrini-Feyerabend and T. Niederberger, 2019. Meanings and more... Policy Brief of the ICCA Consortium no. 7. ICCA Consortium in collaboration with Cenesta., 2019

The 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution is often presented as building on the local traditions of indige... more The 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution is often presented as building on the local traditions of indigenous peoples in order to propose a non-anthropocentric approach to the conservation of the environment, based on the concept of buen vivir. After providing a short introduction on anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric approaches to the environment, with attention to indigenous worldviews, this article attempts to: analyse the concept of buen vivir, appearing to have unclear boundaries; understand whether or not it is a concept derived from indigenous worldviews; and explore the innovative non-anthropocentric feature of the recognition of rights to the environment. Finally, the article uses the idea of rights of the environment as a key to interpret the fuzzy concept of buen vivir in the most effective way to enhance the conservation of the environment.

This article is dedicated to the analysis of the uneasy relationship between human rights and the... more This article is dedicated to the analysis of the uneasy relationship between human rights and the environment. Its first part focuses on new proposals such as the greening of human rights, the development of procedural environmental rights and the creation of specific environmental rights, aimed at the harmonization between human rights and environmental protection. The second part focuses on groups whose rights are particularly at risk vis à vis environmental protection activities: indigenous peoples and local communities. The article then analyses current trends of change in the relationship between indigenous peoples and local communities rights and the protection of the environment thanks to the increased recognition of their role as conservation allies.

Kabir Bavikatte has recently argued that a new ‘basket’ of group rights is emerging from the inte... more Kabir Bavikatte has recently argued that a new ‘basket’ of group rights is emerging from the interpretation of multilateral environmental agreements, domestic law and case law, and from shifts in the development discourse and the struggles of communities. He refers to this new set of rights as ‘biocultural rights’ and defines them as being all the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities required to secure their stewardship role over their lands and waters. Biocultural rights build on two foundations: the self-determination and cultural diversity of indigenous peoples and local communities, and the conservation of the environment. This article suggests that the second foundation is what makes biocultural rights potentially more appealing than other human rights but that it is also the reason for their sui generis potential. Unlike human rights generally, biocultural rights seem to be aimed at protecting not only the interests of their right-holders, indigenous peoples and local communities, but also seem to protect a general interest of humankind in the conservation of the environment through the impositions of stewardship duties on rights-holders. Therefore, it is suggested that while biocultural rights provide a promising instrument for the promotion and protection of the interests of indigenous peoples and local communities, they also require such peoples and communities to be conscious of the fact that they, as biocultural rights-holders, take on a potentially inequitable duty towards environmental sustainability that limits their self-determination interests. The article explores some of the conceptual tensions emerging from this possibility and from the fact that indigenous peoples and local communities are presented as co-referents for the same umbrella of rights.

Ragion Pratica, 2022

Soft Power, 2021

Diritto & questioni pubbliche, 2021

Diritto e questioni pubbliche, 2021

Island Studies Journal, 2022

Sajeva G. Inside-out Internal and External Limits to Rights: does it matter?, in Diritto & Questioni Pubbliche, 20,2., 2019

Sajeva G. Un passo avanti e un passo indietro nell’Antropocene: Rights for Ecosystem Services, comunità locali e REDD, in Diritto & Questioni Pubbliche, 19, 2., 2019

Sajeva G., G. Borrini-Feyerabend and T. Niederberger, 2019. Meanings and more... Policy Brief of the ICCA Consortium no. 7. ICCA Consortium in collaboration with Cenesta., 2019

According to K. Bavikatte and Robinson, a new ‘basket’ of group rights is emerging from the inter... more According to K. Bavikatte and Robinson, a new ‘basket’ of group rights is emerging from the interpretation of multilateral environmental agreements, domestic law and case law, and from shifts in the development discourse and the struggles of indigenous and local communities. This new set of ‘biocultural rights’ encompass all the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities required to secure their stewardship role over their lands and waters. Biocultural rights build on two founding interests: the self-determination and cultural diversity of indigenous peoples and local communities, and the conservation of the environment. This presentation suggests that the second foundation, the conservation of the environment, is what makes biocultural rights potentially more appealing than other human rights but that it is also the reason for their sui generis façade. Unlike human rights generally, biocultural rights seem to be aimed at protecting not only the interests of their right-holders, indigenous peoples and local communities, but also seem to protect a general interest of humankind in the conservation of the environment through the impositions of stewardship duties on rights-holders. Therefore, it is suggested that while biocultural rights provide a promising instrument for the promotion and protection of the interests of indigenous peoples and local communities, they also require such peoples and communities to be conscious of the fact that they, as biocultural rights-holders, take on a duty towards environmental sustainability that limits their self-determination. The presentation will explore some of the conceptual tensions emerging from this possibility.

Indigenous peoples’ traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) regulates the relationship between a p... more Indigenous peoples’ traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) regulates the relationship between a people and its land and environment. It has for centuries allowed many indigenous communities to prosper while respecting and protecting the environment and is now the source of enormous unshared profits for western industries.
The 2010 Access and Benefit Sharing Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity proposes to prevent the misappropriation of TEK by calling for the recognition of its economic value and promoting its entrance in the world trade economy. Instead of asserting the right of indigenous peoples to self determine access to and use of TEK in accordance with their locally-specific legal systems, it suggests to regulate it through the World Trade Organization intellectual property regime and in particular through the system of patents. Intellectual property and patent law grounds on liberalist principles ad goals: through the recognition of private property rights on intangible goods they aimed at enhancing the production and commercialization of inventions as means of economic gain. As indigenous representatives have explained in many international fora, usually indigenous’ legal systems do not include the liberalist idea of a right to private property; do not consider TEK a commodity; and regulate its access and use by commons-like systems rather than by market rules applied to private property. Hence, patenting TEK means disentangling it from its indigenous legal context to turn it into a commodity more suitable to be exploited by western industries.
This paper explores the main criticisms raised against the use of patents and then attempts to delineate the overarching differences between indigenous and western legal traditions in the context of intellectual property rights - focusing in particular on the differences perceptions of rights, liberty, property and knowledge. Finally, it outlines the recent idea of Traditional Knowledge Commons as a sui generis alternative.

In 2007, after more than twenty years of negotiations, the United Nations adopted the Declaration... more In 2007, after more than twenty years of negotiations, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration recognizes a basket of collective rights, “biocultural rights”, that include the right to own, use, develop and control traditional resources such as “lands, territories […] genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures”.
Development and conservation projects that promote the respect of biocultural rights are more and more intensive and numerous around the world. However, it is essential that the promotion and application of such rights is done under the light of legal and cultural pluralism to avoid otherwise pressing forces toward homologation that may threaten the conservation of both cultural and biological diversity. For it to happen communities need to have the power and capacity to be active stakeholders in the planning and implementation of any project that involves their participation or that effect them.
Biocultural Community Protocols (BCPs) are instruments to increase the capacity of a community to drive the local implementation of international and national environmental laws, to promote the respect of its biocultural rights and improve its livelihoods through the use of its natural resources . BCPs are documents produced after extensive consultations organized in line with the traditional decision making procedures and with the help of a community-based or nongovernmental organization (NGO).
Overall, BCPs are statements about how the community may wish to engage with external stakeholders, about what the community is and wants; what its rights are and what its customary laws state; what it wants to preserve and what it wants to change. Given the diversity of projects and cultural and legal systems of indigenous and local peoples, BCPs act as a guide on the process without fixing one-fits-all best-practice norms. They allow communities to effectively lead the development and implementation of conservation and sustainable projects rather than passively accept projects proposed by external organizations.
The purpose of this talk is to introduce the BCPs as a tool to promote the endogenous development within the Moringa stenopetala context.

2021 – materiali per una costituzione della terra

Tutti i volumi sono sottoposti a referaggio da parte di membri della Direzione e/o del Comitato s... more Tutti i volumi sono sottoposti a referaggio da parte di membri della Direzione e/o del Comitato scientifico.