Trial Lecture and Public Defence: Mana Elise Héra Tugend
On May 19, Mana Elise Héra Tugend will hold her trial lecture and defend her thesis for the degree of PhD in Law.
The trial lecture will start at 10:15 on the prescribed subject:
"Evaluate the contemporary impacts of colonialism and ‘epistemology of mastery’ on environmental governance and the recognition and protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples. Discuss and provide examples of such impacts in the context of the contemporary movement toward green and just transition".
At 12:15, Ms Tugend will defend her PhD thesis:
"Being in Good Relations with Nature: Relationality, Rights of Nature, and the Restorying of International Environmental Law".
First opponent: Professor Jeremie Gilbert, University of Southampton
Second opponent: Professor Giulia Parola, The Federal University of Amazonas
Leader of the committee: Associate Professor Endalew L. Enyew, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
The public defence will be led by the Dean of the Faculty of Law at UiT, Docent Kristine Helen Korsnes.
This thesis examines how international environmental law can be rethought in response to accelerating socio-ecological crises. It argues that current legal frameworks are not simply limited but structurally shaped by assumptions that separate humans from nature and place them in hierarchy. These assumptions continue to constrain how environmental problems are understood and governed. The thesis develops a relational approach to show how law might be reworked toward more reciprocal human–nature relationships.
Drawing on examples such as the legal recognition of the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand and legal practices in the Pacific region, it examines the rights of nature as a form of productive tension: both radical in challenging human exceptionalism and conservative in relying on existing legal forms. Rather than resolving this tension, the thesis treats it as a starting point for reimagining law itself. In doing so, it opens up more concrete ways of imagining legal futures that reflect the interdependence of human and more-than-human worlds.
The trial lecture and the public defence will be available via streaming. The stream links will be available soon.