Important Updates
Protecting Water and Life: Frontline Stories from Ohioans fighting corporate and state…
Publications
A new system of law based on respect for Nature and the…
Issues, News, Resources, Rights of Nature
FREE Gifts with tax-deductible year-end donations of $100 or more.
Newsletters
Dec 11, 2024
We hope you enjoy the articles, factoids, features, and spotlights of the people who make CELDF the powerhouse that it is through our 2024 End-of-Year Newsletter.
Read More | Newsletters, ResourcesNov 20, 2024
Summer is fading away. School is back in full swing. Electoral politics are in full volume. And, 2024 is fast approaching its end. CELDF’s 2024 “Vote for the People!” Update Report is meant to be a reminder of what it will take for deep systems change, who the real change-makers are, and the value and effectiveness that… Read more »
Read More | NewslettersNov 6, 2024
The essays in Wouldn’t You Say? ask challenging questions about modern society, our relationship to each other, and to the natural world. Order Your Copy Today!
Read More | News from the Grassroots, PublicationsDec 8, 2023
THANK YOU for being part of CELDF’s work for People and Nature.
Read More | Multimedia, Newsletters, ResourcesDec 8, 2023
Law and culture. Culture and law. Which comes first, and how are they related? CELDF and partners hosted Truth, Reckoning, and Right Relationship with the Great Lakes in the fall of 2023 to wrestle with these questions. This impactful compilation video of that full-day gathering reflects a range of truths from doctors, lawyers, indigenous activists,… Read more »
Read More | Events, MultimediaDec 4, 2023
FREE Gifts with tax-deductible year-end donations of $100 or more.
Read More | NewslettersNov 6, 2023
We need you to help us partner with others in fostering a culture and governing system that is all about community-based governing authority in the name of right relationship with Nature. We invite you to apply today!
Read More | News, ResourcesSep 18, 2023
That Begins with the Stories we Tell . . . CELDF’s Education Director, Ben G. Price, is a pioneer in establishing the legal Rights of Nature. He organized the first community on Earth to enact a Rights of Nature law (Tamaqua, PA, 2006). In 2019 he shared what he had learned from nearly two decades… Read more »
Read More | Publications, Rights of NatureMar 15, 2023
“Water Is Us” was moderated by ORCRN’s board member and CELDF organizer Kai Huschke. Joining him was: On February 22nd the ORCRN’s Webinar Wednesday meandered through a variety of water topics, from current conditions of water access and water quality to how the law sees water, to the growth of rights of nature to protect and preserve water, to… Read more »
Read More | Community Rights, Events, Extraction & Pollution, Multimedia, Resource Links, Rights of Nature, Water PrivitizationMar 10, 2023
Kai Huschke, with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, talks to us about the hierarchy of community rights, states rights, and corporate rights.
Read More | Community Rights, Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Events, Extraction & Pollution, Multimedia, Rights of NatureFeb 7, 2023
The person in this position will play an integral role in expanding CELDF’s support for its mission to advance democratic and environmental rights. This is a part-time remote contract position, with the possibility of an expanded role over time.
Read More | Blogs, News, News from the Grassroots, ResourcesNov 28, 2022
If you are interested in receiving our newsletter, the Susquehanna – either electronically or by mail – sign up here. Thank you! READ OUR NEWSLETTER and 2022 YEAR-END APPEAL
Read More | NewslettersSep 15, 2022
A new system of law based on respect for Nature and the obligations we share as collaborators with life-supporting ecosystems must be institutionalized, recognizing Nature as a unique legal entity and rights holder.
Read More | Issues, News, Resources, Rights of NatureJul 8, 2022
The Rights of Nature (RoN) promote a new understanding of the human
environment, where natural entities are conceived as subjects with intrinsic value independent of human interests. The implementation of this idea
gained momentum in the United States in 2006. One decade and a half later, the idea has spread all over the world.
Jul 5, 2022
We at CELDF were excited to be able to read the full decision of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador upholding the rights of the Los Cedros Forest over a mining project and we are sharing that decision with you in both English and Spanish. We want to thank the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature… Read more »
Read More | News, Resources, Rights of NatureApr 11, 2022
Episode DescriptionIn 2019, after a decade-long campaign, voters in Toledo Ohio voted to approve the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, effectively giving the lake personhood. It drew an incredible amount of attention. This wasn’t San Francisco hippies or Brooklyn hipsters talking about rights of nature, this was middle-aged moms in the Rust Belt, and that… Read more »
Read More | Multimedia, News, Resources, Rights of NatureMar 22, 2022
Carolyn Harding with Tish O’Dell, a powerful voice for justice in Ohio, the US, and Globally. Tish has been a Community Organizer for CELDF (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) since 2012 assisting residents to organize rights-based initiatives in their communities in order to help them “make real” the just and sustainable communities they envision for… Read more »
Read More | Community Rights, Democratic Rights, Issues, News, News from the Grassroots, Publications, ResourcesMar 10, 2022
“New Normal” Needs a New Constitutional Amendment discussion from the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference PIELC.
Read More | Corporate 'Rights', Democratic Rights, Multimedia, News from the Grassroots, Rights of NatureJan 13, 2022
Protecting Water and Life: Frontline Stories from Ohioans fighting corporate and state power This book features frontline stories from a movement fighting corporate and state power in Ohio. Edited by Tish O’Dell and Simon Davis-Cohen. For over eight years, organizers with the Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN) have worked hard with CELDF to propose and… Read more »
Read More | PublicationsDec 30, 2021
La Corte Constitucional revisa la sentencia de segunda instancia emitida por la Corte
Provincial de Justicia de Imbabura dentro de la acción de protección presentada por el GAD de
Santa Ana de Cotacachi en favor del Bosque Protector Los Cedros, en la cual se alegaron como
vulnerados los derechos de la naturaleza, el derecho a un ambiente sano, el derecho al agua y la consulta ambiental.
Dec 20, 2021
Our newsletter, the Susquehanna, comes out 2 – 3 times annually. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter – either electronically or by mail – sign up here.
Read More | NewslettersNov 11, 2021
CELDF’s Kai Huschke was centrally involved in the first-in-the-nation Community Bill of Rights and Worker Bill of Rights. His chapter for the new book One-Block Revolution, details the community building behind the efforts.
Read More | PublicationsNov 10, 2021
CELDF’s Ben Price presented a paper to the conference on the synergistic relationship between municipal activism CELDF has worked on in the United States and the broader internationalist Global Municipalist Movement.
Read More | PublicationsNov 1, 2021
Legal Self Defense understands that the U.S. Constitution guarantees neither fairness nor safety, but that de-escalation skills coupled with some targeted legal knowledge can improve your security during interactions with law enforcement.
Read More | Defunding Violence, PublicationsOct 8, 2021
How Rights of Nature laws are transforming governance to address environmental crises through more ecologically sustainable approaches to development.
Read More | News, Publications, Rights of NatureSep 3, 2021
To advance political education in the Granite State, the New Hampshire Community Rights Network (NHCRN) has compiled an in-depth booklet to explore a transformation of New Hampshire’s form of government.
Read More | Publications, ResourcesAug 16, 2021
Our newsletter, the Susquehanna, comes out 2 – 3 times annually. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter – either electronically or by mail – sign up here.
Read More | Newsletters, ResourcesMay 17, 2021
Our newsletter, the Susquehanna, comes out 2 – 3 times annually. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter – either electronically or by mail – sign up here.
Read More | NewslettersApr 6, 2021
Trying to protect your community from environmental harms such as fracking, or social justice harms, such as unfair elections? Check out Common Sense.
Read More | PublicationsFeb 1, 2021
The World We Need offers a vivid look at the people protecting America’s communities against environmental degradation and racism. Their strategies for saving lives, protecting land, and creating opportunities provide a model for activists everywhere.
Read More | Community Rights, Democratic Rights, News, News from the Grassroots, Press Releases, ResourcesJan 5, 2021
Join us Tuesday 12 January, at 12:30 p.m EST for the third episode of this conference series, entitled “Nature rights: an extension of Human rights?”.
Read More | Community Wires, Events, News from the Grassroots, Resources, Rights of NatureDec 1, 2020
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
was founded as a conventional environmental law firm
(phase one). As it discovered how regulatory law is
fixed to disempower people, communities and ecosystems, it pivoted—towards “rights based” law making.
Nov 10, 2020
A new Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund report details the repression of ballot initiatives in 2020.
Read More | Blogs, News, Publications, Resource Links, ResourcesOct 28, 2020
Protests are shifting the conditions of political action. Immediate structural change may be difficult to see – but it’s happening – culture is shifting. A dedicated and defiant movement is emerging and challenging the purpose of the law.
Read More | Blogs, Newsletters, Press Releases & BlogsSep 1, 2020
In the midst of historic Black Lives Matter uprisings, critics say: “but what is it really accomplishing?” not
realizing that the protests are shifting the conditions of political action itself. Indeed, when movements are so
structural—as to seek transformations of “public safety” and self-governance—it may be hard to observe their
immediate impact.
Jun 9, 2020
A new Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund report details a standard operating procedure of how corporate interests, and the politicians who serve them, retain power.
Read More | Blogs, News, Publications, ResourcesMar 1, 2020
Since a national emergency was called in the United States in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, corporate interests—and politicians doing their bidding—have engaged in aggressive
action to save the status quo. They want nothing more than to return to “normal.”
Feb 5, 2020
This 6 minute short explains how, across numerous social issues—from housing, worker rights, environmental protection to gentrification—“the people in the community lack the legal authority to determine their own future, a basic tenet of democracy.”
Read More | Blogs, Community Rights, Multimedia, News from the Grassroots, Resource Links, ResourcesOct 23, 2019
Since its inception, a state-wide movement in Ohio has faced a state and corporate attack that amounts to concerted opposition from all branches of state government, corporate lobbies, private law firms, and both political parties. The entire repressive apparatus has revealed itself in 2019, for all to see.
Read More | PublicationsSep 1, 2019
CELDF, our partner communities, and allies made remarkable advancements
in Community Rights and Rights of Nature this year. Together—despite corporate and state level efforts to stop this work—we made history.
May 30, 2019
CELDFs national organizing director, Ben Price, reveals that our constitution and legal system were intentionally designed to give more rights to the wealthy propertied class than the rest of us.
Read More | PublicationsSep 1, 2018
As the busiest year ever for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
comes to a close, here’s how Alternet recently described our work: “It’s about the community having the right to protect themselves from
legalized harm…it’s about communities passing laws to create a society
you want your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to
live in.”
Mar 3, 2018
Our popular Community Rights Papers were printed between 2014 – 2017 and re-frame contemporary and historical events through a Community Rights lens.
Read More | PublicationsMar 1, 2018
It all started, as most of these things do, with a company’s application for a permit.
In May of 2013, Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) applied for a permit from
the Environmental Protection Agency to convert one of its gas extraction wells in
Grant Township, Indiana County, PA, into an injection well.
Sep 1, 2017
It’s not every day that a public interest law firm and the communities it serves
begin a movement! But what began over twenty years ago as an effort to help
communities enforce the nation’s environmental laws, has now fully evolved into
a resistance movement focused on driving rights for local self-determination and
nature into the highest levels of law.
Mar 1, 2017
CELDF filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in federal district court in Spokane, WA,
on January 31st. The lawsuit contends that the rail transportation of coal and oil
through the City violates the right of the people of Spokane to a livable climate.
Sep 1, 2016
What an amazing year! Working with CELDF, the people of Grant and Highland
Township in rural Pennsylvania became the first communities in the nation to
draft and adopt home rule charters that enshrine local bills of rights.
Jun 1, 2016
Nearly 13,000 signatures were submitted in five counties to place rights-based
initiatives on the November ballot. The measures ban shale gas drilling, fracking,
pipelines, and frack wastewater injection wells.
Mar 1, 2016
At Town Meeting in March, Barnstead, NH, adopted the first-in-the-nation law
protecting residents from political and civil persecution based on their religious
beliefs. The Community Bill of Rights law establishes the right to be free from
religious identification requirements.
Nov 1, 2015
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund turned
twenty years old this month! Launched by two people in November 1995 in a small, rural township in Pennsylvania,
CELDF has grown into ten staff, a dozen attorneys, and countless volunteers working in ten states.