Animal Law and Policy (LAWS90168)

This subject provides an introduction to the large and amorphous field of law referred to as 'animal law'. Students will survey areas of the law that affect non-human animals and their treatment by humans in particular. Beginning with some larger definitional and philosophical questions about animals, the subject then covers different contexts in which animals encounter the law: as victims of crimes, as human companions, as research subjects, as sources of entertainment, and as sources of food.  The jurisdictional focus of the course is the U.S. and Australia with some attention to other jurisdictions and to international law.

Indicative list of principal topics:

• Introduction to Animal Law: What are animals? Who are animals? Where are they? Are some species more worthy of protection than others? What are our obligations to them and why? How can we understand them as clients?
• Criminal law and animal protection
• Tort law and other civil liability and protection
• Companion animals
• Animals in entertainment
• Animal use in medical and scientific research and product testing
• Farmed animals and legal frameworks for animal welfare regulation
• Property law and the evolution of rights
• Contracts and custody disputes
• Wildlife and captive wildlife
• Animal rights: legal theory and practice: standing and personhood
• The development of animal law in Australia, the US and other countries