Animal Law Commons^™

A Short History Of (Mostly) Western Animal Law: Part I, Thomas G. Kelch

Animal Law Review

This Article, presented in two parts, travels through animal law from ancient Babylonia to the present, analyzing examples of laws from the ancient, medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment, recent modern, and modern historical periods. In performing this analysis, particular attention is focused on the primary motives and purposes behind these laws. What is discovered is that there has been a historical progression in the primary motives underlying animal laws in these different periods. While economic and religious motives dominate the ancient and medieval periods, in the Renaissance and Enlightenment we see social engineering—efforts to change human behavior—come to the fore. In …

No Way To Treat Man's Best Friends: The Uncounted Injuries Of Animal Cruielty Victims, Samantha D. E. Tucker

Animal Law Review

As society has come to recognize the sentience and intelligence of nonhuman animals, jurisdictions across the United States (U.S.) have promulgated animal protection laws. Despite the development of anti-cruelty statutes, though, states with sentence enhancement mechanisms continue to elevate criminal offenders’ sentences only if they injure human victims. This Note considers the development of anti-cruelty laws and explores how sentencing guidelines, victim injury points, and other sentence enhancement mechanisms function in U.S. criminal justice systems. It examines how multiple states treat victim injury, focusing particularly on Florida where, in October 2011, a Florida Assistant State Attorney—in what was likely the …

Rules For Playing God: The Need For Assisted Migration & New Regulation, Jessica Kabaz-Gomez

Animal Law Review

Climate change is quickly transforming habitats. Species in affected regions are facing extinction as they are unable to migrate to suitable environments. This Note discusses assisted migration, the intentional human-assisted movement of imperiled species to suitable habitats outside of their historic range, as an important—though controversial—conservation tool. There are, however, no comprehensive assisted migration regulations in the United States. This Note argues that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) should be the agency to issue regulations regarding assisted migration because FWS already has broad authority under the Endangered Species Act to conserve wildlife. This Note proposes that new regulations …

Critical Animal Studies And Animal Law, Maneesha Deckha

Animal Law Review

Law is anthropocentric. With the limited exception of its treatment of the corporation, law is a system of rules that privileges the concept of the human and ascribes reality through a human perspective. Appreciating this, it is truly impressive that animal issues in the law have become so prominent throughout the legal education system. With this increased exposure to posthumanist critiques of the legal system and its status for and treatment of animals, an increasing number of those involved in legal education are rethinking the law’s species-based hierarchy that places humans at the apex. This flourishing interest in animal law …

An International Treaty For Animal Welfare, David Favre

Animal Law Review

Currently there is no international agreement that ensures the welfare and protection of animals. Nor is there any international standard that regulates and defines the acceptable treatment of animals. This lack of international consensus leads to the current disparate treatment of animals around the world, echoing the need for an international framework addressing the issue. This Article discusses a proposed umbrella treaty, the International Convention for the Protection of Animals (ICPA). This umbrella treaty would enable animal welfare issues to gain international recognition and protection by setting the general guidelines and polices regarding the treatment and use of animals. This …

Human Drama, Animal Trials: What The Medieval Animal Trials Can Teach Us About Justice For Animals, Katie Sykes

Animal Law Review

The legal system generally does little to protect animals, and one aspect of its inadequacy is a matter of formal structure: under United States and Canadian law, animals are not legal “persons” with an independent right to the protections of the legal system. There are calls to expand the status of animals in the law by providing them with legal standing, the right to be represented by a lawyer, and other formal protections. But, in a way, some of this has happened before. There is a long history, primarily from the medieval and early modern periods, of animals being tried …

2010 Legislative Review, Jenny Keatinge, Richard Myers

Animal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Confined To A Process: The Preemptive Strike Of Livestock Care Standards Boards In Farm Animal Welfare Regulation, Lindsay Vick

Animal Law Review

In recent years, livestock care standards boards have emerged as an innovative way for state agencies to regulate farm animal welfare. Far from improving farm animal welfare, however, these boards are frequently a way to codify existing industry standards. The Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, for example, had a nominal mission to establish regulations governing the care and well-being of livestock and poultry. Other states have created similar mechanisms for regulating farm animal welfare. This Comment maintains that the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board regulations merely codify the existing status quo on Ohio factory farms rather than improving the health …

Who The Judge Ate For Breakfast: On The Limits Of Creativity In Animal Law And The Redeeming Power Of Powerlessness, Matthew Liebman

Animal Law Review

Drawing upon various schools of legal thought, this Essay explores how ideological and non-legal factors influence the adjudication process in animal law cases. The Legal Realist and Critical Legal Studies movements highlighted the indeterminacy present in legal doctrine and undermined trust in judges’ ability to arrive at “correct” answers to legal questions. In the midst of such indeterminacy, where legal texts do not predetermine legal outcomes, judges tend to render decisions that are consistent with pervasive societal norms and existing distributions of political power. Starting from these premises, the Author questions whether innovative and creative impact litigation by the animal …

Front Matter

Animal Law Review

Front Matter includes Title Page, Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for Animal Law Review Volume 18, Issue 1, 2011.

A "Fisheye" Lens On The Technological Dilemma: The Specter Of Genetically Engineered Animals, George Kimbrel, Paige Tomaselli

Animal Law Review

One year ago, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed approval of the first genetically engineered (GE or transgenic) animal for food production—a salmon engineered to grow much faster than normal using genetic material from an ocean pout. Faced with concerns from scientists and the public that these “super” salmon will escape into the wild and be the final blow to wild salmon, proponents crafted a scheme that is half Michael Crichton, half Kurt Vonnegut: The engineered salmon eggs will begin life in a lab on a frozen Canadian island, then be airlifted to a guarded Panamanian fortress, …

The Animal Companion Puzzle: A Worth Unknown Though Height Taken, Ronald B. Lansing

Animal Law Review

A tort occurs where one individual breaches a duty allegedly owed to another. When the damage necessitates a judicial rem­edy, it is up to the courts to fix the appropriate level of compen­sation. The law distinguishes between two categories of compensatory awards and labels them ''economic'' and ''noneconomic'' remedies. When a loss falls into the latter cate­gory-that is, the damages suffered lack an ascertainable mar­ket value-judges have struggled to put a price on the harm.

This jurisprudential puzzle is particularly apparent in the pet loss context. Companion animals are defined as property under the law in all fifty states. Thus, …

The Endangered Species Act V. The United States Department Of Justice: How The Department Of Justice Derailed Criminal Prosecutions Under The Endangered Species Act, Ed Newcomer, Marie Palladini, Leah Jones

Animal Law Review

Historically, in prosecutions under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), to prove the element “knowingly” the government only had to prove that a defendant intentionally killed an animal that turned out to be endangered or threatened, not that the defendant knew the identity of the species or the endangered or threatened status of the animal when it was killed. Jury instructions to this effect were repeatedly upheld. Then, in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court for McKittrick v. U.S., the federal government, unprompted, unnecessarily, and without explanation, said that it would not use this jury instruction in the future …

Animal Violence Court: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence-Based Problem-Solving Court For The Adjudication Of Animal Cruelty Cases Involving Juvenile Offenders And Animal Hoarders, Debra L. Muller-Harris

Animal Law Review

Cases involving cruelty to animals are currently handled by the traditional criminal courts. These courts, however, are not effective at punishing animal abusers or protecting animal victims. Although all states have laws criminalizing various forms of animal cruelty, the reality is that most cruelty cases are not prosecuted; even when cruelty cases are successfully prosecuted, punishments are weak. This Comment proposes the creation of an Animal Violence Court, using juvenile animal abusers and adult hoarders as ideal candidates for a pilot animal cruelty justice system. The Animal Violence Court will provide for the ongoing safety and care of animal victims, …

The Connection Between Animal Abuse And Family Violence: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, Sharon L. Nelson

Animal Law Review

This Selected Annotated Bibliography assembles legal and social literature that examines the link between domestic violence and animal abuse. Drawing from an ever-growing body of written works dedicated to the issue, the Bibliography presents the works that are most informative and useful to the legal community. These include case studies, current and proposed legislation, and social services guides that address the occurrence of and response to the animal cruelty-family violence correlation. In doing so, the Bibliography creates a resource that will prove helpful to a variety of legal practitioners, law makers, and professionals within the criminal justice system, and will …

State Animal Use Protection Statutes: An Overview, Jen Girgen

Animal Law Review

Although much attention has been given to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a federal statute enacted to deter and punish extra-legal animal rights activism, comparatively little attention has been afforded the various state versions of this law. This Article is an attempt to help remedy this deficit. It offers a comprehensive overview of existing state animal use protection statutes and describes legislative trends in this area.

Front Matter

Animal Law Review

Front Matter includes Title Page, Masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for Animal Law Review Volume 17, Issue 2, 2011.

Welfare Improvements For Organic Animals: Closing Loopholes In The Regulation Of Organic Animal Husbandry, Aurora Paulsen

Animal Law Review

For many consumers, farm animal welfare matters. To ensure the well-being of farm animals, consumers often pay premium prices for animal products with humane labels. Because “organic” is an example of a label presumed to convey information about animal husbandry practices, animal products with this label may offer an alternative to products from animals that were raised “conventionally” on large, industrialized farms with minimal welfare protections. The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and enacting regulations require that organic animals be able to engage in natural behaviors. However, many of the requirements are general and thus result in significant variations …

The Statutory Pet Trust: Recommendations For A New Uniform Law Based On The Past Twenty-One Years, Shidon Aflatooni

Animal Law Review

Nearly three-fourths of American households include pets. Often, these pets are considered to be members of the family and are cared for as such. When a pet owner dies, however, questions often arise as to who will be responsible for continuing to care for the animals. Previously, probate and trust laws did not allow pet owners to provide for the care of their pets after death. In 1990, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) enacted the first pet trust statute in the Uniform Probate Code. Since then, the NCCUSL passed the Uniform Trust Code, which included …

Teaching Posthumanist Ethics In Law School: The Race, Culture, And Gender Dimensions Of Student Resistance, Maneesha Deckha

Animal Law Review

This Essay challenges laws’ hegemonic humanist boundaries by analyzing the challenges involved in mainstreaming posthumanist subjects into the legal curricula. Posthumanist subjects in legal education are perceived as marginal and unworthy of serious discussion and scholarship. The author identifies the problems that can arise in introducing posthumanist critical content through her experience of teaching animal law as an optional course and as a part of a compulsory first-year course on property law and in advising on an upper-year student-led conference. She argues that the biases related to gendered, racialized, and otherwise differentiated norms inherited by the legal education system as …

Incorporating Animal Law Into Private Practice, Holly Anne Gibbons

Animal Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Nature And Effects Of Constitutional State Objectives: Assessing The German Basic Law's Animal Protection Clause, Claudia E. Haupt

Animal Law Review

In 2002, an animal protection clause was added to Article 20a of the German Constitution. Designed as a state objective, the nature of the animal protection clause decidedly influences its application. As a state objective, it is directed at all three branches of government, and each branch must ensure within its sphere of competence the realization of the stated goal. The Federal Constitutional Court has yet to address the precise scope of the provision.

This Article examines the likely future effects of the animal protection clause. With respect to the legislative branch, this Article addresses the question of whether the …

Companion Animal, Sebastien Gay

Animal Law Review

This Article presents a theory of the economic value of companion animal life. Under the existing United States torts regime, the standard damages award available to an owner for an action arising from a companion animal death is its fair market value. This approach implicitly assumes that pet owners are irrational, given that they generally invest more in their pets than the animal’s fair market value. This Article suggests that, based on an economic model that conceptualizes companion animals as an employee-investment hybrid, the value of a companion animal is higher than its fair market value. This model has implications …

Oceans In The Balance: As The Sharks Go, So Go We, Paula Walker

Animal Law Review

Shark finning is amongst the most wasteful and cruel exploitation of animals currently practiced in the world today. The decimation of shark populations threatens the fragile balance of the oceans’ ecosystems and ultimately threatens the human population as well. This Article addresses the economic and cultural reasons for the continued practice and demand for shark finning. Many protections for sharks have been attempted, but nearly all fail due to inadequate restrictions and enforcement. Various international treaties and conventions have to some degree addressed the issue, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the Convention on Migratory Species, …

Live Free Or Die: On Their Own Terms: Bringing Animal-Rights Philosophy Down To Earth By Lee Hall, Joel Marks

Animal Law Review

This book review examines Lee Hall’s new book, which presents an innovative animal rights theory: wild animals, due to their autonomous nature, are endowed with rights, but domesticated animals lack rights because they are not autonomous. With that theory in mind, Hall outlines ideas about how humans are obligated to treat both wild and domestic animals. Hall first argues that the rights of wild animals require that humans let them alone. Yet, despite the fact that domestic animals lack rights under Hall’s theory, Hall argues that humans are required to care for them because it is humans who brought them …

Front Matter

Animal Law Review

Front Matter contains title page, masthead, advisors, and Table of Contents for Animal Law Volume 17, Issue 1.

Saving Lives Or Spreading Fear: The Terroristic Nature Of Eco-Extremism, Kevin R. Grubbs

Animal Law Review

Much debate has surfaced surrounding so-called “eco-terrorism.” Some commentators argue that such activity is not and should not be called terrorism. This Comment analyzes these extremist activities through the lens of federal terrorism laws and argues that, while these activists’ goals are laudable, their methods are often terroristic. Consequently, those activities that go too far are-and should be-classified as terrorism.

2009 Legislative Review, Jennifer O'Brien, Randall Szabo

Animal Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Animal Law Review

Front Matter includes title page, advisors, and table of contents for Animal Law Review Volume 16, Issue 1.

The Regulation Of Kosher Slaughter In The United States: How To Supplement Religious Law So As To Ensure The Humane Treatment Of Animals, Melissa Lewis

Animal Law Review

It is often argued that one of the most humane methods of killing an animal is through the performance of kosher slaughter. Indeed, the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act (HMLSA) of 1978 goes so far as to define kosher slaughter, and handling in connection with such slaughter, as humane, and consequently fails to provide any regulation over this method of killing. It is thus concerning that a number of kosher slaughterhouses have, in recent years, been discovered to be using blatantly inhumane practices, which the relevant religious authorities have insisted are completely kosher.

This Article examines the Jewish law …