Animal law

Animal law is a combination of statutory and case law in which the nature – legal, social or biological – of nonhuman animals is an important factor. Animal law encompasses companion animals, wildlife, animals used in entertainment and animals raised for food and research. The emerging field of animal law is often analogized to the environmental law movement because "animal law faces many of the same legal and strategic challenges that environmental law faced in seeking to establish a more secure foothold in the United States and abroad".[1]

Animal law issues encompass a broad spectrum of approaches – from philosophical explorations of the rights of animals to pragmatic discussions about the rights of those who use animals, who has standing to sue when an animal is harmed in a way that violates the law, and what constitutes legal cruelty.[2] Animal law permeates and affects most traditional areas of the law – including tort, contract, criminal and constitutional law. Examples of this intersection include:

  • animal custody disputes in divorce or separations[3][4][5]
  • veterinary malpractice cases[6]
  • housing disputes involving "no pets" policies and discrimination laws[7]
  • damages cases involving the wrongful death or injury to a companion animal[8]
  • enforceable trusts for companions being adopted by states across the country[9]
  • criminal law encompassing domestic violence and anti-cruelty laws

Organizations

A growing number of state and local bar associations now have animal law committees.[2] The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded by attorney Joyce Tischler in 1979 as the first organization dedicated to promoting the field of animal law and using the law to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals.[10]

In the Swiss canton of Zurich an animal lawyer, Antoine Goetschel, was employed by the canton government to represent the interests of animals in animal cruelty cases[11] from 2007 to 31 December 2010, when the Zurich Animal Advocate position was abolished.[12] In this capacity, Goetschel attempted to ensure that Swiss animal protection laws, which are among the strictest in the world,[13] were correctly enforced.

The UK Centre for Animal Law (A-law) is the UK's leading animal law charity. It publishes The UK Journal of Animal Law bi-annually and has a thriving Student Group.

The Animal Defenders Office is an Australian community legal centre focusing on animal law.

Animal law in academia

North America
Prominent Animal Rights scholar Tom Regan

Animal law has been taught in at least 119 law schools in the US, including Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Northwestern, University of Michigan, Georgetown, Duke, and Lewis & Clark and is currently taught in at least 117 schools.[14][15] Animal law is also currently taught in seven law schools in Canada.[14] In the US there are Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) chapters in 132 law schools, with an additional seven chapters in Canada. SALDF chapters are student groups that are affiliated with the Animal Legal Defense Fund and share its mission to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system.[16]

In 2004, a course on animal law was first taught at UBC by visiting professor Vaughan Black, a visiting professor from Dalhousie University.

Since at least 2006, animal law has also been offered at UVic by Professor Maneesha Deckha.

In 2014, animal law was reintroduced at UBC by Rebeka Breder , Marcie Moriarty, and Amber Prince.

In 2016, the animal law course at UBC was taught by Amber Prince and Victoria Shroff was brought on to substitute for Rebeka Breder.

In 2017, the animal law course was taught by Rebeka Breder, Amber Prince, and Victoria Shroff.

The animal law course was most recently taught again in 2019 by Amber Prince and Victoria Shroff.

The comprehensive Canadian animal law casebook is: "Animals and the Law" by Lesli Bisgould. [17]

The comprehensive American animal law casebook is Animal Law: Cases and Materials.[18] Because animal law is not a traditional legal field, most of the book's chapters are framed in terms of familiar subsets of law such as tort, contract, criminal and constitutional law. Each chapter sets out cases and commentary where animal law affects those broader areas.

The Animal Protection Laws of the United States of America & Canada compendium,[19] by Stephan K. Otto, Director of Legislative Affairs for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, is a comprehensive animal protection laws collection. It contains a detailed survey of the general animal protection and related statutes for all of the states, principal districts and territories of the United States of America, and for all of Canada; along with full-text versions of each jurisdiction's laws.

South America

Animal law is being taught in a few European universities in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Several Brazilian universities offers Animal Law subjects such as Federal University of Bahia (at Graduate Program in Law), the University of São Paulo (at undergraduate level), the Federal University of Paraná (at undergraduate level), Federal University of Santa Maria (at Graduate Program in Law) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (at undergraduate level). These courses are taught in Portuguese.

In according Tagore Trajano Silva: "The foregoing groups have contributed to the progress and redesign of the curricula of law schools in Brazil. They have created new alternatives, possibilities, and understandings, important both for the defense of the non-human animals and for humans. The next step is the formation of a solid political base in order to generate effective legislative change, and thus the realization of animal law. During the year 2013, events were organized, focusing on the need to mobilize the Brazilian legislature to attend to the issue of animals. These meetings focused, both politically and legally, on the best means to support the animal law debate. It is time to insert animal law into the curriculum of the Brazilian law schools. As a result, in 2014, Brasilia, the Brazilian political capital, will hold the fourth World Conference, with the theme Posthumanism: challenges and perspectives. The goal is to develop a future scenario for putting these ideas in practice."[20]

Australia

One of the more comprehensive academic works on animal law is authored by Ven. Alex Bruce ('Tenpa') and titled "Animal Law in Australia: An Integrated Approach."[21] Other animal law books include: Bagaric and Akers, Humanising Animals: Civilising People,[22] Cao, Sharman & White, Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand,[23] Sankoff & White (eds), Animal Law in Australasia,[24] and Caulfield, Handbook of Australian Cruelty Law[25]

Europe

Animal law is being taught in a few European universities in Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), in Spain, is the only European university to offer a Master’s Degree in Animal Law and Society (Derecho Animal y Sociedad). The highly interdisciplinary program, directed by Prof. Dr. Teresa Giménez-Candela,[26] is taught in Spanish and English. It aims to provide students knowledge of animals in the fields of law, ethology, nutrition and welfare, ethical dimensions, artistic representations and entertainment, organization and social responsibility. The program is based on a comparative law perspective, keeping in mind the needs of society as a whole. A postgraduate diploma is also available in that specific field.

Initially, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB, in Catalan the school is "Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona") Law School was the first Spanish university to officially offer optional courses in "Animal Law and Animal Welfare Law: comparative perspective (Derecho Animal y Derecho del Bienestar Animal: perspectiva comparada)" in 2007–2008. Due to student demand, a Postgraduate Degree in Animal Law and Society was established in 2009–2010. The first edition of the Master's program in Animal Law and Society was launched in 2011–2012 and is currently accepting students for its eighth edition (Oct. 2018– Dec. 2019).[27] UAB also offers an online Master's in Animal Law and Society, and is currently accepting applications for its fifth edition (Jan. 2019 - Oct. 2019).[28]

Affiliated with the Master's program in Animal Law and Society is the Derecho Animal Web Center, the first website in Spain which provides, since 2007, a database on legislation and jurisprudence regarding animals. It provides a service that is both scientific and educational. The same year was founded the Research Group ADS (Animales, Derecho y Sociedad), directed by Prof. Dr. Teresa Giménez-Candela. The international and multidisciplinary group aims to promote research in the field of Animal Law and Policy.

Although animal law is not yet taught in French universities, the University of Limoges has been publishing a biannual Law Review especially dedicated to animal law related topics since 2009. The Revue Semestrielle de Droit Animalier founded and directed by Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Marguénaud, relies on distinguished law professors and professionals, philosophers, and scientists who form the editorial board. Animal rights advocates and researchers are also invited to contribute on certain topics.

The University of Basel (Switzerland) in collaboration with the University of Zurich, launched in 2012 a doctoral program entitled “Law and Animals: Ethics at Crossroads”, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Anne Peters.

In 2012, the Global Journal of Animal Law was established by Prof. Dr. Anna Birgitta Wahlberg of the Department of Law of the Åbo Akademi University, in Finland. The primary objective of this online semi-annual publication is to define legal approaches to non-human animals in different legal systems and to analyze the legal status of animals within these systems. The Global Journal of Animal Law focuses on legislation, implementation, interpretation, enforcement and compliance. The first issue was published in June 2013.

In February 2013, was created the EuroGroup for Animal Law Studies (EGALS), a collaborative partnership aimed to increase the interest of the European legal community for animal law and thus to encourage and facilitate the emergence of Animal Law Studies in European universities as well as to further research in this area. The founding partners are: Prof. Dr. Teresa Giménez-Candela (Autonomous University of Barcelona), Prof. Dr. Anne Peters (University of Basel), Dr. Margot Michel (University of Zurich) and the Fondation Droit Animal, éthique et sciences (LFDA).

The 2nd Global Animal Law Conference was held on July 11 and 12, 2014 at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) by the Research Group ADS and the Derecho Animal Web Center, in collaboration with the Animal Legal & Historical Center (Michigan State University College of Law) and the Center for Animal Law Studies (Lewis & Clark School of Law).

Asia

KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan introduced a course of Animal Law in 2013 upon initiative of Dr. Maria Baideldinova (Assistant Professor, KIMEP School of Law).

Main article: Animal rights by country or territory

Regarding the campaign to change the status of animals as property, the animal rights activists have seen success in several countries. In 1992, Switzerland amended its constitution to recognize animals as beings and not things.[29] However, in 1999, the Swiss constitution was completely rewritten. A decade later, Germany guaranteed rights to animals in a 2002 amendment to its constitution, becoming the first European Union member to do so.[29][30] The German Civil Code had been amended correspondingly in 1997. In 2015 the General Assembly of the Province of Quebec adopted a modification of the Quebec Civil Code according animals the status of sentient beings instead of property, as previously.[31][32][33] The amendment, however, has not had much impact in German legal practice yet.

The greatest success of the animal rights activists has certainly been the granting of basic rights to five great ape species in New Zealand in 1999. Their use is now forbidden in research, testing or teaching.[34] (the UK government banned experiments on great apes in 1986.[35]) Some other countries have also banned or severely restricted the use of non-human great apes in research.

The Seattle-based Great Ape Project (GAP) – founded by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, the author of Animal Liberation, widely regarded as the founding philosophical work of the animal liberation movement[36] – is campaigning for the United Nations to adopt its Declaration on Great Apes, which would see chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans included in a "community of equals" with human beings. The declaration wants to extend to the non-human apes the protection of three basic interests: the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.[37] (see also great ape personhood).

New Zealand has effectively phased out live exports for slaughter purposes since 2007 due to concerns about animals.[38]

See also

References
  1. What Can Animal Law Learn From Environmental Law? Archived October 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Animal Law Program Archived June 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Pet Custody Disputes" – National Association for Biomedical Research – animal law section
  4. Gray v Brimbank CC (Review and Regulation) [2014] VCAT 1485 BAWP Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Russell D. Knight, In Chicago, Illinois, can the court award me custody of my dog, cat or pet?
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2015-08-18.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2015-08-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "Non-Economic Damages", National Association for Biomedical ResearchDRYTUR6UJDR6U – animal law section
  9. "Pet Trusts" – National Association for Biomedical Research – animal law section
  10. http://www.aldf.org Archived December 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  11. The lawyer who defends animals Archived April 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Leo Hickman. The Guardian. March 5, 2010
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-10-21. Retrieved 2015-08-18.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. Scales of Justice: In Zurich, Even Fish Have a Lawyer Archived May 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Deborah Ball. The Wall Street Journal. March 6, 2010
  14. "Animal law courses" Archived June 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Animal Legal Defense Fund
  15. "Animal Law Courses" – National Association for Biomedical Research – animal law section
  16. "Student Animal Legal Defense Fund" Archived April 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Animal Legal Defense Fund
  17. https://www.irwinlaw.com/titles/animals-and-law
  18. Wagman, Bruce A.; Sonia S. Waisman & Pamela D. Frasch (2010). Animal Law: Cases and Materials. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 9781594606724.
  19. "The Animal Protection Laws of the United States of America & Canada – fourth edition". Archived from the original on 2009-09-04. Retrieved 2009-04-14.
  20. Silva, Tagore Trajano (2014). "Origins and Development of Teaching Animal Law in Brazil". Pace Environmental Law Review. 31 (2): 501–530.
  21. Alex Bruce. Animal Law in Australia: An Integrated Approach. Lexis Nexis Sydney 2012. https://books.google.com/books/about/Animal_Law_in_Australia.html?id=TA_iygAACAAJ%5B%5D (retrieved 9 May 2013)
  22. Mirko Bagaric and Keith Akers, Humanising Animals: Civilising People, CCH Wolters Kluwer, Sydney, 2012
  23. D Cao, K Sharman, S White. Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand, Law Book Company, Sydney, 2010
  24. Peter Sankoff and Steven White (eds), Animal Law in Australasia, Federation Press, Sydney 2009
  25. Malcolm Caufield, Handbook of Australian Cruelty Law, Animals Australia, Melbourne, 2008.
  26. "Cv Gimenez-Candela" (PDF). DerechoAnimal. 2011–2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 5, 2016. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  27. "Máster Presencial". derechoanimal.info (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-03-09.
  28. "Máster Online". derechoanimal.info (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-03-09.
  29. "Germany guarantees animal rights in constitution". Associated Press. 2002-05-18. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  30. "Germany guarantees animal rights". CNN. 2002-06-21. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  31. Journal des débats de l'Assemblée nationale Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  32. Quebec bill calls animals 'sentient beings' and includes jail time for cruelty Archived December 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  33. Manifesto for the Evolution of Animals’ Legal Status in the Civil Code of Quebec
  34. Taylor, Rowan. A Step at a Time: New Zealand's Progress Towards Hominid Rights (PDF).
  35. Guldberg, Helene (March 29, 2001). "The great ape debate". Spiked online. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Retrieved January 9, 2011.
  36. Rowlands, Mark. Animal Rights: Moral Theory and Practice (Second Edition), 2009, p. 1
  37. "World declaration on great primates". Great Ape Project.
  38. "Is it true that New Zealand has banned live export?".

Bibliography
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