Corporations are currently treated as legal persons in court, separate from their owners, allowing them to sue, be sued, enter contracts, hold property. They possess certain constitutional rights, such as due process and free speech, but must be represented by an attorney in court proceedings. 

Nature deserves the same legal status as corporations. The rights of ecosystems and natural communities need to be enforceable independently of the rights of people who use them, the same way we treat corporations. That means that people within a community could step “into the shoes” of a mountain, stream, or forest ecosystem, and advocate for the rights of those natural communities. It calls for a system of jurisprudence in which those ecosystems are actually “seen” in court.