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Supplementary chapter references
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Jurisdiction-specific references

List of key journals

Chapter 7 - Animal Rights in Legislation

Proposals

Finnish Animal Rights Proposal

Swiss Primates Rights Initiative

Draft Animal Rights Instruments

  1. Introduction
  • For a discussion of the limitations of animal rights protection through case law and an argument for international animal rights law, see: Ankita Shanker and Eva Bernet Kempers, ‘The Emergence of a Transjudicial Animal Rights Discourse and Its Potential for International Animal Rights Protection’ (2022) 10 Global Journal of Animal Law 1, available at https://ojs.abo.fi/ojs/index.php/gjal/article/view/1758
  • For a detailed critique of the humancentric thinking underlying international law and an argument in favour of a biocentric approach that factors in the interest of animals, see: Michael Bowman, ‘Animals, Humans and The international Legal Order: Towards An Integrated Bioethical Perspective’ in Werner Scholtz (ed), Animal Welfare and International Environmental Law: From Conservation to Compassion (Edward Elgar 2019), available at https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788113946.00008
  • For a shorter, related critique of contemporary international human rights discourse, see: Raymond Corbey, ‘“Race” and Species in the Post-World War II United Nations Discourse on Human Rights’ in Raymond Corbey and Annette Lanjouw (eds), The Politics of Species: Reshaping our Relationships with Other Animals (Cambridge University Press 2013), available at https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139506755.008
  1. Domestic Proposals for Animal Rights Law
  • For a video presentation by Birgitta Wahlberg about the Finnish animal rights proposal, see: Birgitta Wahlberg, ‘Fundamental Animal Rights: Proposal by the Finnish Animal Rights Lawyers Society’, available at https://youtu.be/BbUe9fLCUtU
  • For commentary on the Swiss primates rights initiative, see: Charlotte E Blattner and Raffael Fasel, ‘The Swiss Primate Case: How Courts Have Paved the Way for the First Direct Democratic Vote on Animal Rights’ (2022) 11 Transnational Environmental Law 1, available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102521000170
  • For a recorded discussion about the Swiss Primates Rights initiative, see: Charlotte E Blattner and Silvano Lieger, ‘A Discussion with Sentience about Switzerland’s Historic Primate Rights Initiative’ (9 December 2021), available at https://youtu.be/1yS2B4-tKsg
  1. International Proposals for Animal Rights Laws
  • For a discussion of how shared understandings and social practices create and sustain international law, see: Jutta Brunnée and Stephen J Toope, ‘Shared Understandings in International Society’, Legitimacy and Legality in International Law: An Interactional Account (Cambridge University Press 2010), available at https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781261.004
  • For an analysis of why states comply with international law, see: Harold Hongju Koh, ‘The 1994 Roscoe Pound Lecture: Transnational Legal Process’ (1996) 75 Nebraska Law Review 181, available at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol75/iss1/7
  • For arguments in defence of a globalized approach to animal protection, see: Carolina Fumagalli, ‘A Global Institution on Animal Protection’ (2020) 11 dA.Derecho Animal (Forum of Animal Law Studies) 62, available at https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/da.482 and Thomas G Kelch, ‘Towards Universal Principles for Global Animal Advocacy’ (2016) 5 Transnational Environmental Law 81, available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102515000308
  • For critical appraisals of global animal law, including of Western-centric thinking, see: Iyan Offor, ‘Second Wave Animal Ethics and (Global) Animal Law: A View from the Margins’ (2020) 11 Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 268, available at https://doi.org/10.4337/jhre.2020.02.06 and Iyan Offor, ‘Global Animal Law and the Problem of “Globabble”: Toward Decoloniality and Diversity in Global Animal Law Studies’ (2022) 12 Asian Journal of International Law 10, available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S2044251322000029
  1. Drafting Animal Rights Laws
  • For an argument about the need for animal rights to displace animal welfare in international animal law, focusing on a biocentric (or Earth Law) approach, see: Rachelle Adam, ‘Imagining the Unimaginable: An International Convention for Animal Rights’ (2022) 10 Global Journal of Animal Law 1, available at https://ojs.abo.fi/ojs/index.php/gjal/article/view/1754
  • For a comparative analysis of Earth Law and animal rights approaches to protecting animals, see: Glenn Wright, ‘Animal Law and Earth Jurisprudence: A Comparative Analysis of the Status of Animals in Two Emerging Discourses’ (2013) 9 Australian Animal Protection Law Journal 5, available at https://www.animallaw.info/sites/default/files/australia_journal_vol9.pdf
  • For a discussion of several of the drafting issues raised in this chapter, see: Janneke Vink, ‘Enfranchising Animals in Legal Institutions: Fundamental Legal Rights’, The Open Society and its Animals (Palgrave Macmillan 2020), available at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-41924-0
  • For an analysis of how dignity in international human rights law could be applied to international animal rights, see: Jane Kotzmann and Cassandra Seery, ‘Dignity in International Human Rights Law: Potential Applicability in Relation to International Recognition of Animal Rights’ (2017) 26 Michigan State International Law Review 1, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/s0gn-vr90
  • For a consideration of drafting issues drawing on experience with the Finnish animal rights proposal, see: Birgitta Wahlberg, ‘Animal Law in General and Animal Rights in Particular’ (2021) 67 Scandinavian Studies in Law 14, available at https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202201189082
  • For an argument about how to implement protection for wild animals through legal rights, see: Pablo P Castelló, ‘A Strategic Proposal for Legally Protecting Wild Animals’ (2022) 25 Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy 103, available at https://doi.org/10.1080/13880292.2022.2103918
  • For consideration of different drafting issues, focusing on animals in Russian law, see: Aleksey Pavlovich Anisimov and Anatoliy Jakovlevich Ryzhenkov, ‘The Concept and Classification of Animal Rights: Points for Debating’ (2016) 57 Hungarian Journal of Legal Studies 255, available at https://doi.org/10.1556/2052.2016.57.3.1
  1. Conclusion
  • For a general discussion of how animal interests can be enshrined in international law, see: Steven White, ‘Into the Void: International Law and the Protection of Animal Welfare’ (2013) 4 Global Policy 391, available at https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12076
  • For a brief discussion about the need to enshrine animal rights in international law, see: Anne Peters, ‘Toward International Animal Rights’ in Anne Peters (ed), Studies in Global Animal Law (Springer 2020), available at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-60756-5
  • For a brief comment on the potential to enshrine animal rights in international law, see: David Favre, ‘International Paths Forward for Animals: Perspectives on Legal Change’ (2022) 10 Global Journal of Animal Law 1, available at https://ojs.abo.fi/ojs/index.php/gjal/article/view/1777