A Charter for the River Thames

A Charter for the River Thames – A partnership with the Environmental Law Foundation

In 2025-2026, in partnership with the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), students explored legal and policy pathways for a River Thames Charter that would recognise the river as a rights-holder and stakeholder in decisions affecting it.

Divided in three intercollegiate groups each supervised by academics from LSE Law School, King's College London, UCL, SOAS and Birkbeck, students researched distinct legal avenues to better protect the River Thames:

1) whether London boroughs could establish a joint arrangement under the Local Government Act 1972;

2) whether the Greater London Authority or the Port of London Authority could use statutory powers (byelaws) to introduce enforceable protections for the river’s health;

3) whether the Thames itself could be formally incorporated as a stakeholder in decision-making procedures affecting it.

Throughout the project, students received expert training from academics across all five institutions and ELF’s Co-Director and Head of Education & Policy, Tom Brenan.

The students’ reports are available here:

- A Joint Arrangement to Introduce a River Thames Charter (April 2026). Under the supervision of Sue Willman (KCL): whether London boroughs could establish a joint arrangement under the Local Government Act 1972

- A Byelaw to Protect the River Thames (April 2026). Under the supervision of Professor Jane Holder (UCL) and Dr Rob Amos (Birkbeck): whether the Greater London Authority or the Port of London Authority could use statutory powers (byelaws) to introduce enforceable protections for the river’s health

- Incorporating the River Thames as a Key Stakeholder in Decision-making Affecting the River (April 2026). Under the supervision of Dr Marie Petersmann (LSE) and Dr Nate Palmer (SOAS): whether the Thames itself could be formally incorporated as a stakeholder in decision-making procedures affecting it.

What students said

‘Reimagining the River Thames as a rights-bearing entity, and engaging directly with councils, NGOs, and local stakeholders to consider what that might mean in practice, offered a unique opportunity to examine the institutional durability of transformative legal thought. What grounded the work was the recognition that the Thames is not an abstract case study, and that our proposals could affect the human and nonhuman lives connected to it. That gave everything a greater ethical weight’ (Daijah Paris Valentine, LLM student).

‘This project gave us the chance to research an issue that is both at the forefront of global academic thinking within the rights of nature movement and one which has the potential to create real environmental change in London. To be able to contribute both theoretically to this important and growing body of research as well as potentially creating a real-world impact on the city which I now call home is incredibly rare. It was an invaluable experience’ (Josie Butcher, LLM student).