What happens when rights of nature come into tension with other types of rights? How do we anticipate resolving potential conflicts?

This section takes a brief look at what happens when rights collide in law and what types of techniques exist for balancing rights. It also considers how these same techniques could be applied to balancing the rights of nature with other competing rights.

Rights can conflict in many different ways ¹. In some instances, two competing rights may be incompatible and one must triumph over the other ². In other instances, competing rights may be reconciled or recognized in a new or different form ³.

It may be useful to envision rights in tension on a spectrum. At one end there are “competing” or “conflicting” rights, which suggests a more adversarial process and at the other end of the spectrum there is “balancing” or “reconciling” rights, which suggests a more harmonious process. Different methods or techniques may be necessary depending on where rights in tension land on the spectrum.