The role of courts in articulating local imaginaries of sustainability for tourism

Iona McEntee

doi:10.35295/osls.iisl.2649

Authors

Iona McEntee University of Edinburgh https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5646-7441

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl.2649

Keywords:

Rights of Nature, Sustainable tourism, Local imaginaries, Legal ecumenism, Courts

Abstract

This paper examines the role of courts in articulating local imaginaries of sustainability. Focussing on the land ownership dispute over the Te Urewera Forest, it explores how the Waitangi Tribunal articulated a local imaginary of sustainability based on Tūhoe cosmovisions, as an alternative to the conservationist paradigm imposed by the Crown. Understanding tourism as a hegemonic project, where the management of natural resources has excluded local communities, failed to meet their subjective needs, or achieve inter-generational equity, this paper argues that articulating local imaginaries of sustainability can enable counter-hegemonic projects to tourism. It therefore discusses the role of courts in articulating local imaginaries of sustainability, by fostering legal compromises based on legal ecumenism. It will find that sustainability is intimately linked to the notion of ‘legal ecumenism,’ as in, the willingness of courts to creatively accommodate hegemonic and counter-hegemonic worldviews and epistemologies, enabling spaces for counter-hegemonic projects of emancipation.

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Author Biography

Iona McEntee, University of Edinburgh

Email: iona.mcentee@ed.ac.uk

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