This webinar will address the use of the Rights of Nature as a jurisprudential approach to protecting animals and the environment. Panelists will address the benefits and jurisdictional limitations of this strategy as well as the challenges of protecting animals as part of the environment rather than for their own individual (rather than species) sake. This webinar will focus on Ecuador as a case study because there has been so much legal activity there. We will hear from a judge and a legal advocate involved in these cases.

About the Speakers

Teresa Nuques Martínez – Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador

Judge of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, Teresa Nuques Martínez holds a PhD in Law from the University of La Coruña, Spain, and earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree from the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, Ecuador. She also holds a Master's degree in Arbitration and Mediation, Administrative Law, and Constitutional Justice. Furthermore, she is a specialist in Constitutional Law from the University of Salamanca, Spain. In addition to her judicial role, Judge Nuques is actively involved in academia as a Professor of postgraduate and undergraduate courses at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Hugo Echeverría Villagomez – Attorney Specializing in Environmental Law

Hugo Echeverría Villagomez is an attorney specializing in Constitutional Rights of Nature, Constitutional Environmental Law, and Penal Environmental Law, with over 22 years of professional practice. He is a part-time Professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Law School (Ecuador) and part-time Professor at Universidad Hemisferios, Law School (Ecuador). He holds membership in multiple organizations for environmental and animal law, including the International Association of Constitutional Law’s Research Group on Rights of Nature and Animals, World Commission on Environmental Law’s Task Group on the Rights of Nature at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and Iberoamerican Association of Law, Culture and Environmental (Asociación Iberamericana de Derecho, Cultura y Ambiente)’s Environmental Law Institute.

Kevin Schneider (Moderator) – Counsel, Earth Law Center

Kevin Schneider is an attorney admitted to practice in New York and acts as counsel to the Earth Law Center. Previously, Kevin was the Executive Director of the Nonhuman Rights Project and served on the legal team that represented the elephant Happy in a historic habeas corpus case before New York’s highest state court. For over a decade, Kevin has worked on extending legal rights to animals and ecosystems. Among other publications, he wrote the chapter on “Nonhuman Rights” for the law textbook Earth Law (Wolters Kluwer, 2021). Kevin is a graduate of the Florida State University College of Law (J.D.) and the University of Massachusetts, Boston (B.A., Political Science).

Fernando Muñoz Domínguez (Interpreter) – LLM in International Environmental Law Candidate at GW Law

Fernando is an Ecuadorian Lawyer. He received his law degree from the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil. During law school, he served as President of the Law Student Association and worked as a Teaching Assistant for Administrative Law, Human Rights, and Criminal Law. He is a Human Rights Consultant and previously worked as a litigation lawyer in the legal department of the Local Government of the City of Guayaquil. Currently, he is pursuing an LLM in International Environmental Law at The George Washington University Law School.