Cormac Cullinan is a practising environmental attorney and author based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a director of the leading South African environmental law

firm A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...

, Cullinan & Associates Inc, and director of the Wild Law Institute, a non-profit organisation that advocates for

Rights of Nature Rights of nature or Earth rights is a legal and jurisprudential theory that describes inherent rights as associated with ecosystems and species, similar to the concept of fundamental human rights. The rights of nature concept challenges twentie ...

. A former commercial lawyer, he has practiced, taught and written about environmental law and policy since 1992, and has worked in more than 20 countries. In the academic field he has lectured and written widely on

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the gove ...

issues related to human interactions with the environment and is notable for authoring a book, ''Wild Law'', as well as several works commissioned and published by the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. He is a graduate of the University of Natal and King's College London and is an honorary research associate of the University of Cape Town. His work includes drafting: the Integrated Coastal Management Bill now before Parliament, the agreement between South Africa, Namibia and Angola that established the Benguela Current Commission; waste legislation for KwaZulu Natal and legislation for sustainable land use in the Western Cape. In 2008 he was listed among the world's most extraordinary environmental champions i
''Planet Savers: 301 Extraordinary Environmentalists''
which lists 301 people in history to be commended for their important role in saving and conserving the environment and promoting sustainable governance, including the likes of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

, St Francis of Assisi and

Henry Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and ...

. In 2016, Cullinan was included in Warrior Lawyers: From Manila to Manhattan, Attorneys for the Earth. In 2021 he won the Nicke Steele award for the South African environmentalist of the year and in 2018 received the Enviropaedia Ecologic lifetime achievement award.

Rights of Nature

Cullinan has led the drafting of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth and is a founder and Executive Committee member of the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature. He drafted the Peoples’ Convention that established the International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature, and was the president of the Tribunal hearings in December 2015 in Paris. Between 2019 and 2021, Cullinan served as the president of the European Tribunal on the Rights of Nature. He has addressed conferences throughout the world on Earth Jurisprudence and the rights of Nature, including the

UN General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Cur ...

in 2011.

Selected publications

''Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice'', first published by Siber Ink, Cape Town, South Africa, August 2002 ; also by Green Books, Totnes, Devon, 2003 . "Integrated Coastal Management Law" Establishing and strengthening National Legal Frameworks for Integrated Coastal Management, FAO Legislative Study No. 93, Rome, 2006. ''Recent trends in monitoring, control and surveillance systems for capture fisheries'', by P Flewelling; C Cullinan; RP Sautter and JE Reynolds. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 415, Rome, FAO, 2002.
"Law and markets - Improving the legal environment for agricultural marketing" FAO, 2000, AGS Bulletin, No. 139
"Land Ownership and Foreigners: A Comparative Analysis of Regulatory Approaches to the Acquisition and Use of Land by Foreigners." FAO Legal Papers Online, 1999. Author of legal section of ''Integrated coastal area management and agriculture, forestry and fisheries''. FAO Guidelines (N Scialabba (ed.) Environment and Natural Resource Service, FAO, Rome. 256p. ''Legal and institutional aspects of integrated coastal area management in national legislation''. FAO Legislative study, 1994 (118 pages).
'If Nature Had Rights'
'' Orion'', USA, January 2008.

Mentions and related literature

Simon Boyle
'On thin ice'

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

newspaper, London, November 2006. Stephen Harding
'Earthly rights'
The Guardian newspaper, London, April 2007. Silver Donald Cameron

The Chronicle Herald ''The Chronicle Herald'' is a broadsheet newspaper published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada owned by SaltWire Network of Halifax. The paper's newsroom staff were locked out of work from January 2016 until August 2017. ''Herald'' management con ...

(Halifax, Nova Scotia), January, 2007.
'SA lawyer an eco-warrior'
News24, Southern African and African news website, February 2008. Sue Segar
'Planet Saver from PMB'
article in The Witness, April 2008.

External links

Cullinan & Associates Inc
a specialist environmental law firm, based in Cape Town, South Africa. View Cullinan's CV.
Wild Law Institute
a non-profit organisation advocating the Rights of Nature.
Wild Law Forum
An online forum launched in September 2007 for the discussion of Wild Law. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cullinan, Cormac Living people Alumni of King's College London International law scholars Non-fiction environmental writers 20th-century South African lawyers Writers from Cape Town University of Cape Town academics 20th-century South African writers 21st-century South African writers Year of birth missing (living people) Rights of nature 21st-century South African lawyers