Animal law
Encyclopedia
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 30 years ago.
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 defend the interests of animals.
In the Swiss
canton of Zurich
an animal lawyer, Antoine Goetschel
, is employed by the canton government to represent the interests of animals in animal cruelty
cases. In this capacity, he attempts to insure that the Swiss animal protection laws, which are among the strictest in the world, are correctly enforced.
The comprehensive animal law casebook is, co-authored by Sonia S. Waisman, Bruce A. Wagman, and Pamela D. Frasch. 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, 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.
activists have seen success in several countries. In 1992, Switzerland
amended its constitution to recognize animals as beings and not things. 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. The German Civil Code had been amended correspondingly in 1997. 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.(It should be noted that the UK government banned experiments on great apes in 1986 ). 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 — is campaigning for the United Nations
to adopt its Declaration on Great Apes, which would see chimpanzee
s, bonobo
s, gorilla
s and orang-utans 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 (see also Great ape personhood
).
:Category:Animal rights and welfare legislation
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
, 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 30 years ago.
Approaches to animal law
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. 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.
- Veterinary malpractice cases.
- Housing disputes involving “no pets” policies and discrimination laws.
- Damages cases involving the wrongful death or injury to a companion animal.
- Enforceable trusts for companions being adopted by states across the country.
- Criminal law encompassing domestic violence and anti-cruelty laws.
Animal law organizations
A growing number of state and local bar associations now have animal law committees. The Animal Legal Defense FundAnimal Legal Defense Fund
The Animal Legal Defense Fund is an American non-profit law organization that aims to protect the rights and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It was founded in 1979 by attorneys active in shaping the emerging field of animal law. The ALDF has campaigned for stronger...
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 defend the interests of animals.
In the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
canton of Zurich
Canton of Zürich
The Canton of Zurich has a population of . The canton is located in the northeast of Switzerland and the city of Zurich is its capital. The official language is German, but people speak the local Swiss German dialect called Züritüütsch...
an animal lawyer, Antoine Goetschel
Antoine Goetschel
Antoine F. Goetschel is a Swiss lawyer who has focused on animal rights law. In cases involving animal abuse, he was appointed to defend the rights of the animal in question...
, is employed by the canton government to represent the interests of animals in animal cruelty
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
cases. In this capacity, he attempts to insure that the Swiss animal protection laws, which are among the strictest in the world, are correctly enforced.
Animal law in academia
Animal law has been taught in at least 119 law schools in the U.S., including Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Northwestern, University of Michigan, Georgetown, Duke, and Lewis & Clark and is currently taught in at least 117 schools. Animal law is also currently taught in 7 law schools in Canada. In the U.S. 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.The comprehensive animal law casebook is, co-authored by Sonia S. Waisman, Bruce A. Wagman, and Pamela D. Frasch. 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, 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.
Recent legal changes influenced by animal rights activists
Regarding the campaign to change the status of animals as property, the animal rightsAnimal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
activists have seen success in several countries. In 1992, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
amended its constitution to recognize animals as beings and not things. However, in 1999 the Swiss constitution was completely rewritten. A decade later, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
guaranteed rights to animals in a 2002 amendment to its constitution, becoming the first European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
member to do so. The German Civil Code had been amended correspondingly in 1997. 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
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in 1999. Their use is now forbidden in research, testing or teaching.(It should be noted that the UK government banned experiments on great apes in 1986 ). Some other countries have also banned or severely restricted the use of non-human great apes in research
Great Ape research ban
A great ape research ban, or severe restrictions on the use of non-human great apes in research, is currently in place in the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Austria. These countries have ruled that chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans are cognitively so...
.
The Seattle-based Great Ape Project
Great Ape Project
The Great Ape Project , founded in 1994, is an international organization of primatologists, anthropologists, ethicists, and other experts who advocate a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights on non-human great apes: chimpanzees, bonobos,...
(GAP) — founded by Australian philosopher Peter Singer
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
, the author of Animal Liberation
Animal Liberation (book)
Animal Liberation is a book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, published in 1975.The book is widely considered within the animal liberation movement to be the founding philosophical statement of its ideas...
, widely regarded as the founding philosophical work of the animal liberation movement — is campaigning for the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
to adopt its Declaration on Great Apes, which would see chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s, bonobo
Bonobo
The bonobo , Pan paniscus, previously called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often, the dwarf or gracile chimpanzee, is a great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. The other species in genus Pan is Pan troglodytes, or the common chimpanzee...
s, gorilla
Gorilla
Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
s and orang-utans 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 (see also Great ape personhood
Great Ape personhood
Great ape personhood is a movement to create legal recognition of bonobos, common chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans as bona fide persons.-First steps:...
).
See also
- Intrinsic value (animal ethics)Intrinsic value (animal ethics)The intrinsic value of an animal refers to the value it possesses in its own right, as an end-in-itself, as opposed to its Instrumental value, its value to other animals . The phrase has been adopted by animal rights advocates...
- Animal ethicsAnimal ethicsAnimal ethics can refer to:*Abolitionism *Animal law*Animal rights*Animal welfare*Intrinsic value *Wildlife managementSee also*Animal rights movement*Animal testing*Animal testing regulations*Cruelty to animals...
- Animal Law ReviewAnimal Law ReviewAnimal Law Review is a law review covering animal law published by students at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. Publishing its first volume in 1994, it was the first law review to focus on animal law issues and is the best known journal in its field. It has featured articles by noted...
- Animal Legal Defense FundAnimal Legal Defense FundThe Animal Legal Defense Fund is an American non-profit law organization that aims to protect the rights and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It was founded in 1979 by attorneys active in shaping the emerging field of animal law. The ALDF has campaigned for stronger...
- Animal welfareAnimal welfareAnimal welfare is the physical and psychological well-being of animals.The term animal welfare can also mean human concern for animal welfare or a position in a debate on animal ethics and animal rights...
- Animal Welfare ActAnimal Welfare ActThe Animal Welfare Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 24, 1966. It is the only Federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport, and by dealers...
:Category:Animal rights and welfare legislation
- Brazilian Abolitionist Movement for Animal liberationBrazilian Abolitionist Movement for Animal liberationBrazilian Abolitionist Movement for Animal liberation is social movement against the exploitation of nonhuman animals, this theoretical and practical approach differ from animal welfare which seeks to regulate this exploitation to make it more humane....
- Hunting Act 2004Hunting Act 2004The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The effect of the Act is to outlaw hunting with dogs in England and Wales from 18 February 2005...
- Society for Animal Protective LegislationSociety for Animal Protective LegislationThe Society for Animal Protective Legislation , the legislative arm of the Animal Welfare Institute. SAPL has worked for the successful adoption of over 15 federal laws, including the Animal Welfare Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Humane Slaughter Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act...
External links
- Center for Animal Law Studies, Lewis & Clark Law SchoolLewis & Clark Law SchoolLewis and Clark Law School is a private American law school located in Portland, Oregon. In the last ten years, L&C's Environmental Law program has been the highest-rated in the United States eight times....
- Animal Legal and Historical Center, Michigan State University College of LawMichigan State University College of LawThe Michigan State University College of Law is a private law school located in East Lansing, Michigan which is affiliated with Michigan State University...
- Animal protection laws, Animal Legal Defense FundAnimal Legal Defense FundThe Animal Legal Defense Fund is an American non-profit law organization that aims to protect the rights and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It was founded in 1979 by attorneys active in shaping the emerging field of animal law. The ALDF has campaigned for stronger...
- International Institute for Animal Law, National Anti-Vivisection SocietyNational Anti-Vivisection SocietyThe National Anti-Vivisection Society, is a national, not-for-profit animal welfare organization based in London whose purpose is to eliminate product testing, education and biomedical research on animals....
- From The State of the Animals III: 2005, Humane Society of the United StatesHumane Society of the United StatesThe Humane Society of the United States , based in Washington, D.C., is the largest animal advocacy organization in the world. In 2009, HSUS reported assets of over US$160 million....