Monica Feria-Tinta is the English Bar response to David Attenborough. He broadcasts about the natural world, she is saving it case by case. Monica tells us what inspired her to write A Barrister For The Earth, which is featured at this year’s festival
‘I’ve been a barrister at the Bar of England & Wales since 2014. My specialism is Public International Law which includes international environmental law, human rights, treaty law, and law of the sea.
‘In 2020 I found myself working on a case concerning an open pit coal mine. It was a case that marked me because of its uncanny features. Rivers were diverted from their normal course to mine coal, coal that was shipped to Europe. I had never seen such a level of pollution and environmental degradation before, despite my many years of practice.
‘Fossil fuel companies were playing God, changing the topography, the ecology of the land in the name of greed. I saw the land devastated, polluted: an eye-sore; an open wound. The indigenous peoples living 100 metres away from a pit were showing signs of DNA damage because of exposure to heavy metals from the mine. This was all documented. I felt indignation and wanted to share what I had learned through my work as a barrister in 10 cases taking up the cause of nature. Because I learned that human beings are part of nature and nature also has dignity. I no longer separated in my mind the cause of humans from the cause of the beyond-the-human: rivers, forests, fauna.
‘For this book I have chosen 10 stories which reveal the state of our natural world, its battles but also the tools we have to save it. Stories that show the power of the law to bring about changes. The magic of different corners of the world. The capacity to think differently about our place in the world.
‘I wanted to show the average person that it matters what you do. Your choices. Your way to relate to nature. To the West nature is a commodity. But I have been taught otherwise by my clients, indigenous peoples (and by my ancestors). We all have power.
‘I wanted to share with the average person the beauty of cultures that show kinship with mountains, glaciers, the sea, rivers, forests. I wanted to show you that a different world is possible. That the legal frameworks making such a world possible already exist and should expand more. An ecocentric law that protects the true meaning of the right to life.
‘In 2021 I found myself acting in a case concerning a cloud forest near the Equator line. It was a forest that was going to be wiped out by gold mining. In it, there were species that you could not find anywhere else in the world. A legal battle ensued and I appeared before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador to argue the case of Nature, to save species to be found in the forest, from extinction. The forest won.
‘In 2016 I started to argue that the climate could have a day in international courts. Indeed, in human rights and law of the sea tribunals. I pioneered these legal ideas. I advised States to bring about Advisory Opinion requests on climate change, starting a revolution in the use of international courts of limited jurisdiction. In 2024 the International tribunal for the law of the sea agreed with the position I had advanced since 2016: that GHG emissions amount to pollution and that States had obligations to protect the marine environment understood as living organisms. This marked a major turning point for international law. As it did winning the fight of first nations in the Torres Strait Islanders case – the first international case that made a sovereign state responsible for lack of action for climate change.
‘Elated I decided to write about these crucial battles that were being fought for the planet and for all humanity. I wanted you to know that it is possible to save the last bits of wilderness left in our planet. That the law has the tools for that. That a shift of consciousness is possible.
‘I tell in my book all these stories. It is not a contemplative book although it prompts profound reflections I share with you. Above all, it is fundamentally a book that shows you transformations, through action for the natural world. I hope it will inspire you. The book whispers to the ear: “Nature has inherent rights. All species are an epic”.’
Monica will be discussing A Barrister For The Earth at 4pm on 28 June in Harvest House Conservatory