Lewis and Clark alumnus Grant Wilson ’12, graduated with a JD and a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. He has forged an innovative, creative legal pathway to advance natural resource and biodiversity protection through the global movement advocating for the “rights of nature.” He recently spoke about his advocacy in a TEDx video, making the case to place our deep connection with nature at the core of the legal system, a shift he says is already underway.
Grant currently serves as Executive Director of the Earth Law Center (“ELC”) and is the lead editor of the seminal casebook “Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law– A Guide for Practitioners” (Aspen 2026). According to him, “Earth Law,” or “ecocentric law,” is an emerging legal field that focuses on views such as legal personhood for nature, Indigenous Knowledge, nonhuman rights for animals, and more. The central idea is to put nature in the driver’s seat and to apply that focus to constitutional, statutory, common, and customary law worldwide.
His work and commitment led to the grand opening of ELC’s London Office six months ago. Through Grant’s London connection, he was invited to give a special TEDx talk in West London. In his TEDx speech, he articulated the concept of “rights of nature” outside of the “black-letter-defined legal box.” For a broader audience, Grant’s talk “focused less on the mechanics of law and more on the sacredness of nature, especially ocean life, and why that deep connection belongs at the core of our legal systems – rather than treating nature as mere property.”
While at L&C, Grant immersed himself in environmental law as his primary field of study. He acknowledged that his courses and legal clinic experiences at L&C were “foundational” to his career and the development of the concepts addressed in the TEDx speech. In Animal Law courses with Prof. Pamela Frasch and Prof. Kathy Hessler, Grant began to see the flawed U.S. common-law treatment of animals, which defines them in purely economic terms, such as revenue-generating “fish stock.”
Under the supervision of Prof. Chris Wold and Prof. Erica Lyman, Grant took a step further in the international legal landscape through clinic experience with the International Environmental Law Project (IELP), the law school’s predecessor to today’s Global Law Alliance for Animals and Environment (“Global Law Alliance”). Through the clinic, he attended one of the United Nations (“UN”) international climate change negotiations. This transformative early-career experience left a lasting impact. He continues to attend international environmental negotiations on behalf of his nonprofit, ELC, including the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 16) in Cali, Colombia.
Looking ahead, Grant is excited to continue campaigning for the rights of nature by engaging in international consultations with national and local governments, engaging with UN international conventions and biodiversity treaty-making, and developing an Asia program to strengthen ELC’s regional partnerships globally.
