Legal definitions are extremely important. They set the rules of the game and draw the line that separates the players from the pieces. For example, any definition of legal personality has two main roles. First, it determines which beings can access the legal system as a person. Second, it outlines the rights and responsibilities of those legal persons within that legal system. 

The woods do not exist for humans to pass judgement upon their beauty. They are not desolate until the moment we enter them nor abandoned on our departure. When there, we are with all of that non-human life. The woods taught me about the opposite of loneliness and I am now accepting the fact that I will never be able to, nor need I, force how that feels or what that means into words alone.  

In a recent Guardian article Cleodie Rickard describes the ECT as “fossil fuel companies’ secret weapon against national climate laws” (Rickard, 2023). The possibility of having to compensate fossil fuel companies with millions, if not billions, in taxpayers money has a ‘chilling effect’. An incentive is created for governments to maintain the status quo and prioritise the interests of corporations over climate justice matters and steps towards ecological transition.