International and Foreign Animal Law Research Guide

At a time when the planet’s wildlife faces countless dangers, international environmental law continues to overlook its evolving welfare interests. This thought-provoking book provides a crucial exploration of how international environmental law must adapt to take account of the growing recognition of the intrinsic value of wildlife.

This easy-to-use reference book is the first compilation of its kind, collating international, regional and European instruments relating to wildlife conservation and animal welfare. It offers an authoritative and comprehensive selection of key documents from the early Agreement on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemisphere 1940 to the most recent European Directives and Regulations. It covers a range of topics such as farm animals, wildlife, companion animals and animals in experimentation. For each instrument a brief editor's note has been provided along with the dates of adoption, date of entry into force and a list of parties or signatories where appropriate. In addition, for reference purposes, a list of the names and addresses, including email and website, of the relevant secretariats or bodies has been provided as well as an extensive table indicating each country and which instruments they are a party to.

Just how much do animals suffer? Does legislation make a difference to animal welfare and do economic factors hinder its improvement ? The treatment of animals has long been a subject of debate, yet attitudes towards animal welfare still differ greatly and genuine concern for animals has only really developed over the last few decades. The general public is concerned by this issue and has gradually started to exert pressure on those who use animals to change their ways and on politicians to introduce new legislation. This book about animal welfare takes a detailed look at the ethical issues, religious viewpoints and the attitudes of different countries towards animal welfare, as well as at the Council of Europe conventions and other European instruments aimed at tackling this issue at an international level.

This unique book establishes potential future avenues within the law to enhance the welfare of animals and grant them recognized legal status. Charting the direction of the animal-human relationship for future generations, it explores the core concepts of property law to demonstrate how change is possible for domestic animals. As an ethical context for future developments, the concept of a 'right of place' is proposed and developed. The Future of Animal Law focuses on dogs as companion animals who provide the political motivation for legislative change, contextualizing the role of companion animals within the concept of family and the future implications of this position. It compares the US approach with materials from other common law jurisdictions, illustrating how a number of existing laws support the claim that companion animals are already on the path to personhood.

The chapters in this book identify, discuss, and analyze research resources, strategies, and current and emerging legal frameworks on animal rights and welfare in the laws of more than 15 countries across five continents. In addition, this book touches on a diverse set of research methods in both common law and civil law legal systems, including regulatory research, legislative research, statutory research, case law research, international agreement research, and comparative law research. Each chapter focuses on a singular, important, and well-defined legal topic, identifying unique problems within that topic and exploring practical yet effective approaches to address these problems.

Raising awareness of human indifference and cruelty toward animals, The Global Guide to Animal Protection includes more than 180 introductory articles that survey the extent of worldwide human exploitation of animals from a variety of perspectives. In addition to entries on often disturbing examples of human cruelty toward animals, the book provides inspiring accounts of attempts by courageous individuals—including Jane Goodall, Shirley McGreal, Birute Mary Galdikas, Richard D. Ryder, and Roger Fouts—to challenge and change exploitative practices.

Extraterritorial jurisdiction stands at the juncture of international law and animal law and promises to open a path to understanding and resolving the global problems that challenge the core of animal law. As corporations have relocated and the animal industry (agriculture, medical research, entertainment, etc.) has dispersed its production facilities across the territories of multiple states, regulatory gaps and fears of a race to the bottom have become a pressing issue of global policy. This book provides enough background to allow readers to understand why extraterritorial jurisdiction must respond to these developments, counters objections that readers might raise, and describes how to improve animal law in tandem.

This open access book contains 13 contributions on global animal law, preceded by an introduction which explains key concepts and methods. Global Animal Law refers to the sum of legal rules and principles (both state-made and non-state-made) governing the interaction between humans and other animals, on a domestic, local, regional, and international level. Global animal law is the response to the mismatch between almost exclusively national animal-related legislation on the one hand, and the global dimension of the animal issue on the other hand. The chapters lay some historical foundations in the ius naturae et gentium, examine various aspects of how national and international law traditionally deals with animals as commodity; and finally suggest new legal concepts and protective strategies. The book shows numerous entry points for animal issues in international law and at the same time shifts the focus and scope of inquiry.