Animal law is a combination of

statutory A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...

and case law in which the nature legal, social or biological of nonhuman animals is an important factor. Animal law encompasses

companion animals A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

, animals used in entertainment and animals raised for food and

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

. 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". 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 Cruelty is the pleasure in inflicting suffering or inaction towards another's suffering when a clear remedy is readily available. Sadism can also be related to this form of action or concept. Cruel ways of inflicting suffering may involve ...

. Animal law permeates and affects most traditional areas of the law including

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...

, criminal and

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...

. Examples of this intersection include: * animal custody disputes in

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

or separations * veterinary

malpractice In the law of torts, malpractice, also known as professional negligence, is an "instance of negligence or incompetence on the part of a professional".Malpractice definition, Professionals who may become the subject of malpractice actions inc ...

cases * housing disputes involving "no pets" policies and discrimination laws * damages cases involving the wrongful death or injury to a companion animal * enforceable

trusts A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the "settl ...

for companions being adopted by states across the country * criminal law anti-cruelty laws.

Organizations

A growing number of state and local bar associations now have animal law committees.Animal Law Program
The

Animal Legal Defense Fund The Animal Legal Defense Fund is an animal law advocacy organization. Its stated mission is to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It accomplishes this by filing high-impact lawsuits to protect an ...

, founded in 1979, was 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. In the Swiss canton of Zurich an animal lawyer,

Antoine Goetschel Antoine François Goetschel (born 1958) 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. He played a prominent role lobbying for the unsucces ...

, was employed by the canton government to represent the interests of animals in

animal cruelty Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or su ...

cases from 2007 through 2010, when the Zurich Animal Advocate position was abolished. In this capacity, Goetschel attempted to ensure that Swiss animal protection laws, which are among the strictest in the world, were correctly enforced. The

Animal Defenders Office The Animal Defenders Office (ADO) is an Australian community legal centre focusing on animal law, specialising in issues surrounding impounded dogs, assistance animals, the setting up animal of charities, and the defence of animal activists.NACLC ...

is an Australian community legal centre focusing on animal law. In South Africa, Animal Law Reform South Africa is the first dedicated animal law organisation in the country working in the areas of 1. Legislative and Policy Reform; 2. Litigation and Legal Services and 3. Education and Research.

Animal law in academia

North America

, animal law is being taught in 167 law schools in the US and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, including Harvard, Stanford,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, Northwestern,

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, Georgetown,

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

, and Lewis & Clark. The comprehensive Canadian animal law casebook is ''Animals and the Law (Essentials of Canadian Law).'' The comprehensive American animal law casebook is ''Animal Law: Cases and Materials.'' 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.

South America

Animal law is being taught in a few European universities in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Argentina and Chile. Several Brazilian universities offers Animal Law subjects such as

Federal University of Bahia The Federal University of Bahia ( pt, Universidade Federal da Bahia, UFBA) is a public university located mainly in the city of Salvador. It is the largest university in the state of Bahia and one of Brazil's most prestigious educational institu ...

(at Graduate Program in Law), the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the bes ...

(at undergraduate level), the

Federal University of Paraná The Federal University of Paraná ( pt, Universidade Federal do Paraná, UFPR) is a public university headquartered in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. UFPR is considered to be one of the oldest universities in Brazil. UFPR ranks as 37th best univers ...

(at undergraduate level),

Federal University of Santa Maria The Federal University of Santa Maria ( pt, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, UFSM) is a Brazilian public university located in Santa Maria, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, funded by the federal government of Brazil. It was founded in 1 ...

(at Graduate Program in Law) and the

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil (UFRJ; pt, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro or ') is a public research university located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the ...

(at undergraduate level). These courses are taught in Portuguese. According to 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.

Australasia

Books on the subject for this geographical area include: * ''Animal Law in Australia: An Integrated Approach'' (2011) by Alex Bruce. * ''Humanising Animals: Civilising People'' (2011) by Mirko Bagaric, Keith Akers. * ''Animal law in Australia and New Zealand'' (2010) by Deborah Cao, Katrina Sharman. * ''Animal Law in Australasia: Continuing the Dialogue'' (2013) by Peter J Sankoff, Steven White, Celeste Black. * ''Handbook of Australian Cruelty Law'' (2009) by Malcolm Caulfield.

Europe

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

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; , es, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona; UAB), is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. ...

(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, 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 Comparative law is the study of differences and similarities between the law (legal systems) of different countries. More specifically, it involves the study of the different legal "systems" (or "families") in existence in the world, including the ...

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). 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).

Asia

KIMEP University KIMEP University (formerly: Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research) is an institution of higher education in Almaty, Kazakhstan. KIMEP is a private, non-profit university offering credit-based, North American-style bac ...

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

Africa

While still a burgeoning field in Africa, animal law is definitively growing. In 2022, the first Animal Law Course will be taught in South Africa by founding directors of Animal Law Reform South Africa, which will be an online course, giving access to the subject to South African and African students for the first time on the continent.

Recent legal changes influenced by animal rights activists

Regarding the campaign to change the status of animals as property, the

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

activists have seen success in several countries. In 1992, Switzerland amended its

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

to recognize animals as ''beings'' and not ''things''. However, in 1999, the Swiss constitution was completely rewritten. A decade later,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

guaranteed rights to animals in a 2002 amendment to its constitution, becoming the first

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

member to do so. The

German Civil Code German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

had been amended correspondingly in 1997. The amendment, however, has not had much impact in German legal practice yet. In 2015 the National Assembly of the

Province of Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

adopted a modification of the Quebec Civil Code according animals the status of sentient beings instead of property, as previously. The greatest success of the animal rights activists has certainly been the granting of basic rights to five

great ape The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ...

species in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1999. Their use is now forbidden in research, testing or teaching. (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 Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a Secularit ...

, the author of '' Animal Liberation'', widely regarded as the founding philosophical work of the animal liberation movement is campaigning for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

to adopt its Declaration on Great Apes, which would see chimpanzees,

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

s and

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genu ...

s included in a "community of equals" with

human beings Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...

. The declaration wants to extend to the non-human

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister g ...

s 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 is a movement to extend personhood and some legal protections to the non-human members of the great ape family: chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. Advocates include primatologists Jane Goodall and Dawn Prince-Hughes, e ...

has effectively phased out live exports for slaughter purposes since 2007 due to concerns about animals.

References

Bibliography

"Animal Law: Yesterday and Today"
Bernstein, Robin, ''New Jersey Lawyer'', pp. 23, 27, August 2005
Animal law for "least protected" and "most innocent"
May 20, 2008, ''The UW Daily'', Seattle

March 29, 2008, ''USA Today''

External links

*
Global Journal of Animal Law
'
Revue Semestrielle de Droit AnimalierPlatform to improve the legal conditions of animals
Global Animal Law Project
Center for Animal Law Studies

Lewis & Clark Law School The Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College (also known as Lewis & Clark Law School), is an American Bar Association-approved private law school in Portland, Oregon. The law school received ABA approval in 1970 and joined the As ...

Animal Legal and Historical Center
Michigan State University College of Law
Animal protection laws

International Institute for Animal Law
National Anti-Vivisection Society
Animal Law Reform South Africa

Humane Society of the United States The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an American nonprofit organization that focuses on animal welfare and opposes animal-related cruelties of national scope. It uses strategies that are beyond the abilities of local organizations. ...

International Animal Law, with a Concentration on Latin America, Asia, and AfricaProgress in Animal Legislation: Measurement and Assessment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Animal law

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...