This chapter examines how Australia and New Zealand engage with international environmental law (IEL), highlighting their roles in shaping, implementing, and responding to global environmental agreements and norms. It explores regional legal developments, domestic implementation of IEL obligations, and the influence of international principles on national policy. The chapter situates both countries within the broader IEL framework, offering insights into their contributions, challenges, and evolving legal approaches to pressing environmental issues.

This article examines the decline of New Zealand’s coastal marine environment and the shortcomings of current legal protections. It proposes granting legal personhood to marine ecosystems as a way to strengthen environmental protection. Drawing on examples from New Zealand and abroad, the article argues that legal personhood could shift human-nature relationships to prioritize ecosystem well-being and enable more holistic, collaborative management.

This chapter explores the global ecological crisis (biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change) through the lens of the Anthropocene. Focusing on Australia, it examines how Earth jurisprudence and Aboriginal law converge to offer ethical and legal frameworks that restore balance between humans and nature.

This article explores the challenges of recognizing the Rights of Nature (RoN) in Australia, drawing on interviews with individuals across politics, law, advocacy, academia, and local communities. The most significant barrier identified was dominant paradigms, including human-centered thinking and entrenched ideologies. Other key obstacles include regulatory systems, vested interests, and power imbalances. The study introduces the BERN Framework, a new taxonomy of RoN barriers, and shows how RoN functions as a boundary object in Australia, shaped by differing interpretations across sectors.

This article explores how integrating Mātauranga Māori into legal and scientific frameworks strengthens Earth jurisprudence in New Zealand. It highlights the recognition of natural entities as legal persons and emphasizes Indigenous worldviews that see nature as kin, promoting more reciprocal and sustainable environmental governance.

This chapter explores the recognition of ecosystem rights in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand as a legal response to the Anthropocene. It highlights cases where rivers and forests have been granted legal personhood, examining how these developments, often led by Indigenous activism, challenge conventional environmental law and foster relational, place-based governance rooted in shared values and local decision-making.

This chapter examines the application of international environmental law in Oceania’s courts, spanning Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The region’s states have been strong supporters of international and regional environmental agreements, with court cases addressing issues like sustainable fisheries, world heritage protection, and increasingly, climate change. Despite this engagement, a key limitation is the incomplete incorporation of treaty obligations into domestic law, which hinders broader legal application. The chapter highlights both the region’s legal activism and the challenges in fully realizing international environmental commitments.

This paper looks at how people in the Papua New Guinea highlands have responded to food shortages caused by El Niño events. In the past, communities coped through strong socio-ecological systems, such as moving to lower altitudes where extended family offered support. As economic development weakens these social ties and traditional practices, populations have become more vulnerable. The paper explores how these shifts, along with politics and aid efforts, affect local resilience to environmental and food crises.

This journal article explores New Zealand’s 2014 Te Urewera Act, which recognizes the Te Urewera forest as a legal person with rights. Emerging from a treaty settlement with the Tūhoe tribe, the Act reflects their view of the forest as a living being with spiritual authority. It establishes a new governance model with guardians who represent the forest, supporting proactive environmental protection and legal recognition of nature.

This chapter explores the Whanganui River’s transformation from a sacred Māori ancestor to a legally recognized person. It traces colonial impacts following the 1840 treaty, including environmental degradation, and highlights the 2017 legal milestone that honored Māori worldview and restored cultural and ecological respect.