The Legal Recognition of Animal Sentience Principles, Approaches and Applications

About this book

This book explores the movement towards the recognition of animal sentience in the law. It explores some first principles underpinning the recognition of animal sentience, including the nature and scope of sentience provisions, the connection between sentience and empathy, drafting issues, and the relationship between sentience recognition and animal rights. The book highlights the operation of animal sentience provisions in several jurisdictions throughout the world and considers some sector-specific applications and limitations of animal sentience recognition.

The first book of its kind, it draws together different perspectives as to what this novel turn in the law might mean and where it might lead. The chapters provide a full picture of what the recognition of animal sentience might entail for humans, animals, and our environment, as well as the experiences of different legal jurisdictions in pursuing recognition of animal sentience.

This collection is an essential read for both practitioners and academics alike, as well as any group seeking to advance the interests of non-human animals.

Contents

Foreword / Donald Broom
Introduction / Jane Kotzmann and M.B. Rodriguez Ferrere

Part One: First Principles of Sentience Recognition
1. The Nature and Scope of the Legal Recognition of Animal Sentience: A Functional Comparative Analysis of the Lex Lata, and Critical Remarks on Its Future Development / Charlotte Blattner
2. Sentience, Empathy, and the Need for Both Justification and Motivation / Morgan Stonebridge
3. Drafting and Interpreting Sentience Provisions: Incorporating Modern Science in Animal Welfare Law as a Legislative Requirement / Daniel Goldsworthy and Ian A. Robertson
4. Sentience Recognition as a Means for Moving Beyond Animal Welfare to Animal Rights / Jane Kotzmann

Part Two: Regional and National Approaches to Legal Recognition
5. Owning Sentient Beings: The Potential of Sentience Recognition in Continental Law / Eva Bernet Kempers
6. Common Sense: Animal Sentience and the Common Law / Joe Wills
7. All Roads Lead to Sentience: The Past, Present, and Future of Animal Legal Protection in Brazil / Vanessa Gischkow Garbini
8. The Judicial Recognition of Animal Sentience: Developments in Pakistan and India / Hira Jaleel
9. Legal Recognition of Sentience in New Zealand / M.B. Rodriguez Ferrere
10. A Field Trip into Québec Law: Exploring the Theoretical Ramifications of Sentience Recognition / Michaël Lessard
11. Perspectives on the Recognition of Animal Sentience in Spain / Carlos Andrés Contreras López
12. The Animal Sentience Committee: Evolution or Revolution in the Legal Recognition of Animal Sentience in the UK? Rachel Dunn and Joshua Jowitt
13. Affirmative Acts of Recognition: How Codifications of Animal Sentience are Ushering Animals into the Focus of U.S. Law / Rajesh K. Reddy

Part Three: Applications and Limitations
14. Sentiency, Exceptionalism and Farm Animal Protection / Steven White
15. Err on the Side of Sentience: The European Precautionary Principle, Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Invertebrates / Paulien Christiaenssen
16. Animal Sentience Recognition and Theoretical Connotations: Possible Implications for Animals in Research / Jane Kotzmann and Hope Ferdowsian
17. The Utility (or Otherwise) of Symbolic Legislation / M.B. Rodriguez Ferrere

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Biography

Jane Kotzmann is an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Law, Deakin University, Australia. M.B. Rodriguez Ferrere is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Otago, New Zealand.