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[when?].
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.
A growing number of state and local bar associations now have animal law committees. 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.
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 ensure 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 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.
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." Other animal law books include: Bagaric and Akers, Humanising Animals: Civilising People, Cao, Sharman & White, Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand, Sankoff & White (eds), Animal Law in Australasia, and Caulfield, Handbook of Australian Cruelty Law
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, 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 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 students' 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 running its third edition (2013-2014).
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 is set to be 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).
Recent legal changes influenced by animal rights activists
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. 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 chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas 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).
- Animal ethics
- Animal Law Review
- Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Animal welfare
- Animal Welfare Act
- Category:Animal rights and welfare legislation
- Brazilian Abolitionist Movement for Animal liberation
- Derecho Animal Web Center
- Global Journal of Animal Law
- Hunting Act 2004
- Intrinsic value (animal ethics)
- Legal status of animals in Canada
- Revue Semestrielle de Droit Animalier
- Society for Animal Protective Legislation
- Animal Law Program
- "Pet Custody Disputes", National Association for Biomedical Research – Animal Law Section.
- "Non-Economic Damages", National Association for Biomedical ResearchDRYTUR6UJDR6U – Animal Law Section.
- "Pet Trusts", National Association for Biomedical Research – Animal Law Section.
- The lawyer who defends animals, Leo Hickman. The Guardian. March 5, 2010
- Scales of Justice: In Zurich, Even Fish Have a Lawyer, Deborah Ball. The Wall Street Journal. March 6, 2010
- "Animal law courses", Animal Legal Defense Fund.
- "Animal Law Courses", National Association for Biomedical Research – Animal Law Section.
- "Student Animal Legal Defense Fund", Animal Legal Defense Fund.
- Wagman, Bruce A., Sonia S. Waisman, and Pamela D. Frasch (2010). Animal Law: Cases and Materials. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 9781594606724.
- The Animal Protection Laws of the United States of America & Canada — Fourth Edition
- Alex Bruce. Animal Law in Australia: An Integrated Approach. Lexis Nexis Sydney 2012. http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Animal_Law_in_Australia.html?id=TA_iygAACAAJ (accessed 9 May 2013)
- Mirko Bagaric and Keith Akers, Humanising Animals: Civilising People, CCH Wolters Kluwer, Sydney, 2012
- D Cao, K Sharman, S White. Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand, Law Book Company, Sydney, 2010
- Peter Sankoff and Steven White (eds), Animal Law in Australasia, Federation Press, Sydney 2009
- Malcolm Caufield, Handbook of Australian Cruelty Law, Animals Australia, Melbourne, 2008.
- "Germany guarantees animal rights in constitution". Associated Press. 2002-05-18. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- "Germany guarantees animal rights". CNN. 2002-06-21. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
- "A STEP AT A TIME: NEW ZEALAND’S PROGRESS TOWARD HOMINID RIGHTS" BY ROWAN TAYLOR
- Helene Guldberg (March 29, 2001). "The great ape debate". Spiked online.
- Rowlands, Mark. Animal Rights: Moral Theory and Practice (Second Edition), 2009, p. 1
- , Great Ape Project.
- “Animal Law: Yesterday and Today” Bernstein, Robin, New Jersey Lawyer, p. 23, 27, August 2005.
- Animal law for “least protected” and “most innocent”, May 20, 2008, The UW Daily, Seattle
- “Fido, Fluffy Become More High Profile Part of Law,” March 29, 2008, USA Today
- Platform to improve the legal conditions of animals, Global Animal Law GAL Project
- Center for Animal Law Studies, Lewis & Clark Law School
- Animal Legal and Historical Center, Michigan State University College of Law
- Animal protection laws, Animal Legal Defense Fund
- International Institute for Animal Law, National Anti-Vivisection Society
- From The State of the Animals III: 2005, Humane Society of the United States
- International Animal Law, with a Concentration on Latin America, Asia, and Africa
- Progress in Animal Legislation: Measurement and Assessment