The Model Declaration of the Rights of the River, developed by prof. Serena Baldin, coordinator of the Research Unit of the University of Trieste within the PRIN PNRR 2022 project LUMEN and funded by the European Union – Next Generation EU, is now online.
The document is one of the outputs of the project’s Model Law Lab (Package 4), dedicated to translating the ecosystem approach into concrete legal tools and to drafting open-access policy guidelines and model laws. Designed to be included as an annex to river contracts, the model proposes an innovative and participatory approach that recognises rivers as living entities, endowed with specific rights: from the right to flow and maintain their original biodiversity, to freedom from pollution and the regeneration of the ecosystem.
The model is extracted from the forthcoming publication by prof. Baldin titled “Spunti per un modello di dichiarazione dei diritti del fiume da includere nei contratti di fiume”, in Poliarchie/Polyarchies, Special Issue, 2025. Its structure consists of three parts – a preamble, a list of the river’s rights, and commitments from riparian communities – and serves as both a legal and educational tool to promote the protection and sustainable management of water bodies.