Animal Welfare And International Environmental Law

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. Animal Welfare and International Environmental Law offers compelling and timely arguments in favour of wildlife's inherent worth and proposes a progressive development of the law in response to its needs and interests. Taking into account recent trends in bioethics and conservation, these critical discussions of wildlife welfare have dramatic implications for the future of sustainable development and sustainable use. The book challenges assumptions by taking a perspective which decentres the needs of humans and instead emphasises the growing need to protect wildlife with compassion and care. This book will prove invaluable to both students and scholars of environmental law, animal law and international law more widely. It will also appeal to policymakers, legal scholars and NGOs dealing with the imminent needs of the earth's wildlife. Contributors include: D. Bilchitz, M. Bowman, S. Riley, J. Schaffner, W. Scholtz, K. Sykes, S. White

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 thought-provoking book examines the rise of animal welfare as a serious policy concern in the international trade law regime. The central focus is an in-depth study of the background and legal analysis of the landmark EC – Seal Products case, which confirmed the importance of animal welfare in WTO law. The book explores how the WTO handled the relationship between trade disciplines and animal welfare, including the particularly challenging questions around Indigenous seal hunting rights. It offers a detailed account of animal welfare and animal conservation commitments in new trade agreements, as well as mechanisms for enforcement, cooperation, and citizen participation.

estation, habitat destruction and zoonoses; food naming and labelling; and food risk management. Throughout there is reference to an abundance of legislation, treaties, conventions, and case law at domestic, regional, and international levels, with particular attention to European, US, and World Trade Organization law and the work of the FAO. The book clearly demonstrates the necessity for reform of the global system of food production in the direction of a more sustainable and environment-friendly model. In its authoritative discussion of the relations among fields of law that are rarely discussed together – food law and the environment, food law and human rights, food law and animal welfare – this collection of chapters will prove a valuable resource both for officials working in food governance and security and for lawyers and scholars concerned with environmental management, sustainable development, and human rights around the world.

Addressing the interests of non-human animals in an era of globalization requires consideration of a wide range of international influences upon domestic case law, policy, and legal doctrine. International agreements and decisions affect much more than simple cross-border transactions in animals or animal-related products and can also impact what individual countries may or may not do internally to address animal cruelty, health, consumer protection interests, cultural preservation, conservation, species preservation, and a host of other issues in their national laws and regulations. For the first time, materials from a variety of sources are brought together in a single volume which permits instructors and students to focus directly on the complex interaction which occurs between domestic animal law and various international regimes. Key multilateral environmental agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species, and the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling, are all considered. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and the WTO's Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement, and its Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement are also examined to illustrate that international economic law is no less significant in shaping domestic animal measures than are the more well-known environmental agreements. Additionally, efforts to advance animal interests through regional law, nonbinding international standards, or grass-roots efforts such the proposed Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare are also explored. Accordingly, International Issues in Animal Law can serve either as the basis for a stand-alone course, or as a supplement for those who wish to add more of an international emphasis to other course offerings. A comprehensive Teacher's Manual is available for instructors, with numerous cross-references and links to additional resources which makes teaching these materials easy--and fun--even for those with no prior background in the field. "Fitzgerald's book provides a much-needed text that bridges the gap among animal, environmental, and international law texts focusing on the unique issues and challenges raised at the intersection of these three areas of study and practice. [...] While the book primarily is designed as a text for classroom use complete with an incredibly helpful Teacher's Manual providing extensive information and additional resources to supplement the readings in the text, it is also suitable for the advocate looking to become more acquainted with international animal law issues. [...] In this book, Fitzgerald admirably meets his stated goal of facilitating more effective animal advocacy domestically and internationally." -- Joan Schaffner, Journal of Animal Ethics

This book focuses on animal laws and animal welfare in major jurisdictions in the world, including the more developed legal regimes for animal protection of the US, UK, Australia, the EU and Israel, and the regulatory regimes still developing in China, South Africa, and Brazil. It offers in-depth analyses and discussions of topical and important issues in animal laws and animal welfare, and provides a comprehensive and comparative snapshot of some of the most important countries in the world in terms of animal population and worsening animal cruelty. Among the issues discussed are international law topics that relate to animals, including the latest WTO ruling on seal products and the EU ban, the Blackfish story and US law for cetaceans, the wildlife trafficking and crimes related to Africa and China, and historical and current animal protection laws in the UK and Australia. Bringing together the disciplines of animal law and animal welfare science as well as ethics and criminology with contributions from some of the most prominent animal welfare scientists and animal law scholars in the world, the book considers the strengths and failings of existing animal protection law in different parts of the world. In doing so it draws more attention to animal protection as a moral and legal imperative and to crimes against animals as a serious crime.

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.

The plight of animal individuals and species inflicted on them by human activity is a global problem with detrimental repercussions for all humans and for the entire planet. This book gives an overview of the most important international legal regimes that directly address and indirectly affect animals. It covers species conservation treaties, notably the international whaling regime, the farm animal protection rules of the EU, international trade law and the international law of armed conflict. It also analyses the potential for an international regime of animal rights. Finding that international law creates more harm than good for animals, the auther suggests progressive treaty interpretation, treaty making and animal interest representation to close the animal welfare gap in international law. A body of global animal law needs to be developed, accompanied by critical global animal studies.