White, Steven --- "The Emergence of Animal Law in Australian Universities" [2007] ALRCRefJl 14; (2007) 91 Australian Law Reform Commission Reform Journal 51

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The emergence of animal law in Australian Universities

* By Steven White

The teaching of animal law courses in Australian law schools is a very recent phenomenon, the first course only offered in 2005. Despite its newness, there are good reasons to be optimistic about a substantial growth in the field in the coming decade. Recent experience in the United States suggests that once a critical mass of courses is established, very sharp growth ensues.

The emergence of animal law as a legal discipline in Australia is very significant, reflecting a growing recognition that reform of the way in which we govern our relationship with animals is likely to be one of the key social justice movements of the early 21st century. As in earlier social justice movements, lawyers will have an important contribution to make to reform. In order to do so they will need to be informed and educated about the significant socio-legal issues which need to be addressed. The teaching of animal law, and the associated development of a well-developed research culture, can help to stimulate deeper thinking about these issues and creative, practical strategies for reform.

The United States experience—a precedent for Australia?

The discipline of animal law is now well established and widely respected in the United States. The growth in the teaching of animal law in the US has been quite staggering.¹ From a very low base in the early 1990s, the number of courses has steeply increased since, to the point where it is now taught in upwards of 70 law schools, more than a third of all US law schools.²

Accompanying the growth in courses has been the development of linked animal law activities for students, including national animal law moots, essay competitions, internships and so on.

The teaching of animal law in the United States has been underpinned by the emergence of a vibrant and growing research culture. There are specialist animal law centres (eg the National Center for Animal Law, part of Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon). Three specialist animal law journals are published out of the United States, ³ with a fourth, from Stanford University, to commence shortly. ⁴ There are also several animal law textbooks published in the US.⁵ Leading US legal academics have contributed to the literature on animal law issues, even if not actually teaching animal law courses themselves.⁶

Animal law in Australia

Geoffrey Bloom pioneered the teaching of animal law in Australia. He taught the first animal law course in Australia to postgraduate students at the University of New South Wales Law School in 2005. Since then courses have been conducted at UNSW for a second time, Southern Cross University in northern NSW (also taught by Geoffrey), and, in 2007, at Griffith University in Brisbane.

In 2008 courses will be offered at UNSW, Griffith University, and Wollongong University, with new courses on the agenda for 2009 at Sydney University, Monash University, Bond University and Flinders University.

As well, later year UNSW law students have the opportunity of undertaking placements with animal advocacy organisations, as part of a public interest internship scheme. So, while it is still very early days for animal law in Australia, there is a genuine momentum developing within the community of Australian law schools.

Those who have offered or are proposing to offer animal law courses report widely differing experiences in negotiating inclusion of animal law in the law school curriculum.

In some cases, senior law school staff members have been very supportive of inclusion of such a course. In other cases, proponents have been confronted with a range of hurdles. Senior staff have not comprehended, or actually trivialised, animal law as a legal discipline. Resource constraints have sometimes meant that proponents have been required to teach in allocated courses, usually core courses, at the expense of new elective courses. On occasion animal law courses have also been judged as being inconsistent with prevailing teaching and research streams within a law school.

Despite the existence of some institutional resistance, the number of courses offered is growing, even if, as shown above, from a very low base. It’s likely though that institutional resistance will decline over time. Three factors will be critical in this eventuating.

First, as the number of courses gradually increases, a self-sustaining legitimising effect is produced. Second, students are increasingly demanding that a course be offered within their law school. A broader emphasis on humane education in schools and colleges is likely to further stimulate demand, as will initiatives such as Voiceless Animal Advocates (VAA), a newly-established network of university student societies advocating for improved animal protection. One activity suggested for VAA members is lobbying of law schools to include animal law in elective offerings.

Third, Australian legal research and scholarship in the area is growing. Articles addressing animal law issues are now being published with increased frequency in leading Australian law journals, and books with an Australasian focus will soon be available. Australia’s first animal law journal, Australian Animal Protection Law Journal, will soon be up and running. It will be published twice a year and be peer-reviewed. These developments are important for a couple of reasons. First, it legitimises animal law as a field of scholarly endeavour. Second, it provides accessible teaching materials, with an Australian orientation, for those contemplating offering a course in animal law.

Teaching animal law

Although risking over-simplification, it is possible to identify two common approaches to the teaching of animal law. The first adopts a traditional black letter law or survey approach. On this approach, the focus is close analysis of legislation and cases. The position of animals is considered according to traditional doctrinal areas (eg animals and negligence law, animals and property law, animals and contract law, and so on). A strict black letter law course provides little opportunity for reflection by students on the ethics of human and animal interaction, as manifested in law. Insights from other disciplines, such as politics, philosophy or ethics, are largely absent.

The second approach takes an interdisciplinary or law-in-context approach. On this approach, the legal status and regulation of the treatment of animals is central, rather than being regarded as a by-product of established categories of law. The legal status of animals is placed in a broader context, usually in an ethical or political context, but also an economic, scientific and/or environmental context. Insights from other disciplines are used to explain, critique and re-conceptualise prevailing law. The courses taught so far in Australian universities have broadly reflected an interdisciplinary approach. As the number of animal law courses grows, there is likely to be a mix of pedagogical approaches, consistent with the teaching of law more generally.

Significance of animal law

Our relationship with animals is central to our lives, sometimes in obvious ways, but often in ways we are scarcely aware of. Many Australians regard their companion animals as ‘members of the family’. Animals and animal products are central to the diets of most people. Animals are used in an incredible range of products, including plywood adhesives, fertilizers, cosmetics, lubricants, musical instruments, clothes and so on. The exploitation of animals for our benefit raises profound moral, ethical and legal issues. The ways in which the law regulates the treatment of animals reflects, even if imperfectly, society’s regard for animals. Significantly the law is also constitutive of our understanding of the place of animals in the world. For these reasons, animal law has a very strong claim to be part of the curriculum in all law schools, available, at the very least, to law students, but also to students and graduates in other disciplines.

To the extent that animal law does become an established part of the law curriculum, it is more likely that at least some law graduates will have spent a semester thinking about animals and the law. It is trite, but true, to say that these graduates will go on to become litigators and prosecutors, members of parliament and the judiciary, senior policy-makers within government departments, and senior managers in the private and not-for-profit sectors. In all these spheres there is the potential for a significant contribution to the reform of the status of animals.

It is, of course, still too early to gauge the extent to which the emergence of animal law as a distinct discipline will contribute to a reduction in the suffering of animals in Australia and abroad. At the very least, though, animal law has the potential to sensitise lawyers to the need for a more compassionate ethic and to contribute to an environment of increased legal activism and public debate.

Endnotes

1. For a detailed account of the evolution of animal law as a scholarly discipline in the United States see David Favre, ‘The Gathering Momentum’ (2005) 1 Journal of Animal Law 1.

2. P Sankoff , 'Charting the Growth of Animal Law in Education' (2008) 4 Journal of Animal Law (forthcoming)

3. Animal Law (published by the National Center for Animal Law, Lewis & Clark Law School), Journal of Animal Law (published by Michigan State University College of Law) and Journal of Animal Law and Ethics (published by University of Pennsylvania).

4. Journal of Animal Law and Policy (to be published online from 2008, <http://sjalp.stanford.edu/index.html> ).

5. See, eg, Sonia S Waisman et al, Animal Law: Cases and Materials (3rd ed, 2006).

6. 5 .See, eg, Cass R Sunstein and Martha C Nussbaum (eds), Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (2004).

* Steven White teaches law at Griffith Law School, and is completing a PhD on the regulation of animal welfare.