Proposals

Finnish Animal Rights Proposal

• The Finnish animal rights proposal https://www.elaintenvuoro.fi/english/

Swiss Primates Rights Initiative

• The Swiss Primates Rights initiative primaten-initiative.ch/en/initiative/

Draft Animal Rights Instruments

• The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (UDAR) https://constitutii.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/file-id-607.pdf

• The Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans cetaceanrights.org

• The Universal Charter of Rights of Other Species all-creatures.org/articles/ar-universal-charter-rights-species.html

• The Declaration of Animal Rights declarationofar.org/textSign.php#

• The World Declaration on Great Apes projetogap.org.br/en/world-declaration-on-great-primates/?_ga=2.109202115.796902056.1651156167-1712649113.1651156167.

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

2. Domestic Proposals for Animal Rights Law

• For an analysis of the Finnish animal rights proposal, see: Birgitta Wahlberg, ‘Re-Evaluation of Animal Protection by the Finnish Animal Rights Lawyers Society’ 3 Society Regiser 123, available at https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/sr/article/view/20645

• 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 description of the Swiss Primate Rights initiative by Sentience Politics, see: Sentience Politics, ‘Cantonal Initiative «Fundamental Rights for Primates»’ [in German], available at https://sentience.ch/de/initiativen/grundrechte-fuer-primaten

• 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

3. International Proposals for Animal Rights Laws

• For commentary on the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights, see: Jean-Marc Neumann, ‘The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights or the Creation of a New Equilibrium Between Species’ (2012) 19 Animal Law 91, available at https://www.animallaw.info/sites/default/files/lralvol19_1_91.pdf

• For primers on the law of treaties, see: Alina Kaczorowska, ‘The Law of Treaties’, Public International Law (5^th edn, Routledge 2015), available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315858333-3/law-treaties-alina-kaczorowska-ireland?context=ubx&refId=de06504f-9ad2-403e-b3ef-3a908f3fb3f6, and Jan Anne Vos, ‘The Concept of Conventional International Law Situated Within the Framework of Obligation and the Framework of Authorization’, The Function of Public International Law (Springer 2013), available at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-90-6704-861-3_9

• 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

4. 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 the effects of enshrining respect for animals in legislation, see: Camilla Björkbom, ‘Respect for Animals – with What Effects?’ (2022) 10 Global Journal of Animal Law 1, available at https://ojs.abo.fi/ojs/index.php/gjal/article/view/1740

• 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 a consideration of which rights should be enshrined for animals, see: Natasa Stojanovic, ‘Which Animal Rights Should Be Recognised?’ (2016) 64 Anali Pravnog fakulteta u Beogradu 75, available at https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=598057

• 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

5. 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

• For a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of enshrining animal interests in international law, see: Charlotte Blattner, ‘Global Animal Law: Hope beyond Illusion: The Potential and Potential Limits of International Law in Regulating Animal Matters’ [2015] Mid-Atlantic Journal on Law & Public Policy 10, available at https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/midatlapp3&div=7&id=&page=