Associate Professor Alessandro Pelizzon completed his LLB/LLM at the University of Turin in Italy, specialising in comparative law and legal anthropology with a field research project conducted in the Andes. His Doctoral research, conducted at the University of Wollongong, focused on native title and legal pluralism in the Illawarra region. Alessandro has been exploring the emerging discourse on rights of nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception, with a particular focus on the intersection between this emerging discourse and different legal ontologies. His most recent book, titled Ecological Jurisprudence: Law, Representation and Environmental Metaphysics is about to be published by Edinburgh University Press.
Alessandro is a co-founder and an Executive Committee Member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, the current Director of GARN’s International Academic Hub, and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature programme.
Alessandro’s main areas of research are legal anthropology, legal theory, comparative law, ecological jurisprudence, sovereignty, and Indigenous rights.
Professional memberships
- UN Harmony with Nature programme, Expert Member
- International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - World Commission on Environmental Law, Commission Member
- Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, Executive Committee Member
- Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature Academic Hub, Director
- Plan C, Board Member
- Reforest Now, Board Member
Professional social media
Research areas
- ecological jurisprudence
- earth jurisprudence
- wild law and the rights of nature
- environmental colonialism
- sovereignty
- university governance
Teaching areas
Journal Articles
- Grayson Cooke, Rob Garbutt, Johanna Kijas, Alessandro Pelizzon, John Page, Adele Wessell, Frances Belle-Parker, Amanda Reichelt-Brushett, ‘Speaking With the River: Confluence and Interdisciplinarity in Rivers and River Systems’ (2022) Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 1-19 DOI: 10.1177/25148486221 139 138
- James Guthrie, John Dumay, Alessandro Pelizzon, Ann Sardesai, ‘Another way: the intersection of First Nations peoples’ way of thinking and governance, accounting and accountability’ (2022) 4(1) Journal of Behavioural Economics and Social Systems 37-49
- Peter Tregear, James Guthrie, Renaud Joannes- Boyau, Stephen Lake, Adam Lucas, Adrian McCallum, Justin O’Connor, Alessandro Pelizzon, Oliver Vodeb ‘“Enough to Make you Sick!” Pathological characteristics of the Australian academic workplace’ (2022) 41(1) Social Alternatives 44-51
- Oliver Vodeb, Renaud Joannes- Boyau, Stephen Lake, Adam Lucas, Adrian McCallum, Justin O’Connor, Alessandro Pelizzon, Peter Tregear, ‘Australian Public Universities and the Destruction of the Academic Community’ (2022) 41(1) Social Alternatives 35-43
- Stephen Lake, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Adam Lucas, Adrian McCallum, Justin O’Connor, Alessandro Pelizzon, Peter Tregear, Oliver Vodeb, ‘A Brief History of Australian Universities’ (2022) 41(1) Social Alternatives 8-16
- Alessandro Pelizzon, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Adam Lucas, Adrian McCallum, Justin O’Connor, John Orr, Gerd Schröder-Turk, Peter Tregear, Oliver Vodeb, ‘A Crisis of Governance’ (2022) 41(1) Social Alternatives 17-25
- John Page and Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘Of Rivers, Law and Justice in the Anthropocene’ (2022) The Geographical Journal (online – DOI: 10.1111/geoj.12442)
- Martuwarra RiverOfLife, Alessandro Pelizzon, Anne Poelina, Afshin Akhtar-Khavari, Cristy Clark, Sarah Laborde, Elizabeth Macpherson, Katie O’Bryan, Erin O’Donnell and John Page, (2021) ‘Yoongoorrookoo. The emergence of ancestral personhood’ Griffith Law Review (DOI: 10.1080/10383441.2021.1996882)
- Stuart Barlo, William (Bill) Edgar Boyd, Margaret Hughes, and Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘Yarning as protected space: relational accountability in research’ (2021) AlterNative OnlineFirst 1-9 (DOI: 1177/117718020986151)
- Erin O'Donnell, Anne Poelina, Alessandro Pelizzon and Cristy Clark, 'Stop Burying the Lede: The Essential Role of Indigenous Law(s) in Creating Rights of Nature', (2020) Transnational Environmental Law (online) 1-25
- Warwick Fisher, John Orr, John Page, Alessandro Pelizzon and Helen Walsh, ‘Student Evaluations: Pedagogical Tools or Weapons of Choice?’ 30(1) (2020) Legal Education Review
- Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Alessandro Pelizzon, John Page, Nicole Rice, Anja Scheffers, ‘Owning humankind: fossil, humans and archaeological remains’ 6 (2020) Heliyon 1-5
- Stuart Barlo, William (Bill) Edgar Boyd, Alessandro Pelizzon and Shawn Wilson, ‘Yarning as Protected Space: principles and protocols’ (2020) AlterNative OnlineFirst 1-9 (DOI: 10.1177/1177180120917480)
- Alessandro Pelizzon and Mariana Ribeiro Santiago, ‘The “Harmony with Nature” Paradigm in Brazil’ (2020) 21(1) Argumentum 465-487
- Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘An Intergenerational Ecological Jurisprudence: The Supreme Court of Colombia and the Rights of the Amazon Rainforest’ (2020) 2(1) Law, Technology and Humans 33-44 (https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.v2i1.1476)
- Alessandro Pelizzon and Jade Kennedy, “Welcome to Country” and “Acknowledgment of Country”: (Re)Conciliatory Protest (2019) 7(1) Contention 13-28
- Cristy Clark, Ourania Emmanouil, John Page and Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘Can You Hear the Rivers Sing? Legal Personhood, Ontology and the Nitty Gritty of Governance’ (2019) 45 Ecology Law quarterly 787-844
- Alessandro Pelizzon and Aidan Ricketts, ‘Beyond Anthropocentrism and Back Again: from ontological to normative anthropocentrism’ (2015) 18(2) Australasian Journal of Natural Resources Law and Policy 105-124
- Alessandro Pelizzon and Monica Gagliano, ‘The Sentience of Plants: Animal Rights and Rights of Nature Intersecting?’ (2015) 11 Australian Animal Protection Law Journal 5-13
- Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘Aboriginal Sovereignty Claims: Contemporary Voices in Australia’ (2014) 4(4) Settler Colonial Studies 368-381
- Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘Relational subjectivity in the normative worlds of the first Australians’ (2014) Daimon – Quaderni di diritto e politica ecclesiastica 97-116
- Alessandro Pelizzon and Jade Kennedy, 'Welcome to Country: Legal Meanings and Cultural Implications' (2013) 16(2) Australian Indigenous Law Review 58-69
- Anne Schillmoller and Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘Mapping the Terrain of Earth Jurisprudence: Landscape, Thresholds and Horizons’ 2013 3(1) Barry Environmental and Earth Law Journal 3-32
Book chapters
- Alessandro Pelizzon and Gabrielle O’Shannessy, ‘Autonomous legal persons and interconnected ecosystems: paradox or possibility?’ in R Thomas-Pellicer, V De Lucia and S Sullivan, Contributions to Law, Philosophy and Ecology: Exploring Re-embodiments (Routledge, 2016) 212-226
- Alessandro Pelizzon, 'Transitional Justice and Ecological Jurisprudence in the Midst of an Ever-Changing Climate', in Natalia Szablewska and Sascha-Dominik Bachmann (eds), Current Issues in Transitional Justice (Springer, 2015) 317-338
- Alessandro Pelizzon, ‘Earth Laws, Rights of Nature and Legal Pluralism’ in Michelle Maloney and Peter Burdon (eds), Wild Law – In Practice (Routledge, 2014) 176-189
Associate Professor Alessandro Pelizzon's specialist areas of knowledge include ecological jurisprudence, Earth jurisprudence, wild law, rights of nature, legal anthropology, comparative law, sovereignty, constitutional law, university governance.