Animal Law Commons^™

Bringing Dinosaurs Back: The Moral & Legal Complications, Kacey Hovden

Animal Law Review

From Hollywood blockbusters to your local natural history museums, dinosaurs have captured the attention and wonder of the public for decades. The possibility of bringing these long extinct creatures back, once a science-fiction fantasy, is now closer to reality than ever before through a process known as “de-extinction.” This Article dives into the exploitative nature inherent in the de-extinction of dinosaurs, studying the University of Montana’s Dr. Jack Horner’s “dinochicken project” and the moral considerations implicated when conducting mass genetic engineering on sentient beings. The Article then centers itself on the ecological and legal complications likely to arise if a …

Humane Education, Dissection, And The Law, Marcia Goodman Kramer

Animal Law Review

Students regularly encounter animal dissection in education, yet humane education receives little attention in animal law. This article analyzes the status of humane education laws in the United States. It discusses the range of statutory protections, from student choice laws to bans on vivisection. The article then analyzes the litigation options for students who do not wish to dissect, including constitutional claims and claims arising under student choice laws. The article concludes by calling for additional legislation to protect students who have ethical objections to dissection.

Animal Testing In Cosmetics: Recent Developments In The European Union And The United States, Laura Donnellan

Animal Law Review

Animal welfare has become a recent issue in the policy of the European Union. Since the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957, the welfare of animals was only considered in relation to the proper functioning of the common market. Animals were seen as commodities whose interests were intertwined with agricultural and environmental policy. Over the years, the position has changed somewhat. Although a Treaty basis exists for animal welfare, the protection of animals has not yet been recognized as an important policy area of its own, and thus worthy of legal protection. As a positive step in …

Animal Experimentation: Lessons From Human Experimentation, Arthur Birmingham Lafrance

Animal Law Review

This article is adapted from the author's presentation during the panel discussion Animals in Research: Pet Cloning, Patents, and Bioethics at the 14th Annual Animal Law Conference of Lewis & Clark Law School on October 14, 2006.

Conventional wisdom tells us that animal experimentation is a relevant precursor to human experimentation. The failings of human experimentation to be more reliable, however, casts substantial doubt on the necessity and appropriateness of experimentation on animals. The federal government and medical community, since World War II, has used the Nuremberg Code and the “common rule” to determine how to ethically conduct human experimentation. …

Think Or Be Damned: The Problematic Case Of Higher Cognition In Animals And Legislation For Animal Welfare, Lesley J. Rogers, Gisela Kaplan

Animal Law Review

Recent discoveries of higher cognitive abilities in some species of birds and mammals are bringing about radical changes in our attitudes towards animals and will lead to changes in legislation for the protection of animals. We fully support these developments, but at the same time we recognize that the scientific study of higher cognition in animals has touched on only a small number of vertebrate species. Accordingly, we warn that calls to extend rights, or to at least better welfare protection, for the handful of species that have revealed their intelligence to us may be counterproductive. While this would improve …

Maximizing Scientific Integrity In Environmental Regulations: The Need For Congress To Provide Guidance When Scientific Methods Are Inadequate Or When Data Is Inconclusive, Mariyetta Meyers

Animal Law Review

A “best science available” directive appears in a variety of environmental law statutes. Although seemingly clear, this directive has created an abundance of litigation with various plaintiffs challenging agency decisions under the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) arbitrary and capricious standard of review. The courts’ review of the agency decisions based on such science largely depends on the various ways in which the “best science available” directive is written in the particular statute. That is, the more specific the congressional mandate, the less latitude the agency has in implementing congressional will; the broader the statutory language, the more breathing space the …

Apes, Darwinian Continuity, And The Law, Roger S. Fouts

Animal Law Review

This article proposes that the delusional worldview that “man” is outside and above the other “defective” organic beings in nature is completely without empirical scientific foundation. An alternative and harmonious way of being is presented that is derived from the acceptance of the biological reality of continuity.

From Microbe To Man, Mark O. Hatfield

Animal Law Review

Federal policy toward animal patenting and current issues in bioethics.