After the Los Cedros Ruling The Ecocentric Epistemology of the Rights of Nature and Its Impact on the Social Context1

On 10 November 2021, the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court decided to recognize rights to the Bosque Protector Los Cedros. This ruling became nationally and internationally relevant for having realised the first example of ecocentric legal epistemology. Drawing on the Los Cedros case, the chapter investigates the epistemological development of the rights of nature from the perspective of the anthropology of law. Particular attention is paid to interdisciplinarity and interculturality as emblematic dimensions of the renewal of law stimulated by the rights of nature. The discursive analysis of the text produced by the Court is thus connected to the findings from field research conducted in the implementation area of the judgement. Ultimately, the contribution proposes to relate the doctrinal and jurisprudential developments of rights of nature to the local and cultural elements of the context where the law is implemented.