Animal Law, Ethics & Policy Conference 2021

Our Third Animal Law, Ethics & Policy conference took place on 9 & 10 September 2021. The conference has become a regular in the animal law calendar with over 100 delegates attending the event in 2019.

This year’s Conference provided a great opportunity to learn more about current issues in animal law, find out the latest postgraduate research topics and meet like-minded people. Although the event has now taken place, we will be uploading materials from the event to this page soon. 

 

Meet our speakers! Find out more…

about the experts who presented at this year’s Conference and read about day two highlights here.

Hessler
Keynote Speaker: Kathy Hessler (USA)

Kathy Hessler is a clinical professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School. She is the first faculty member hired to teach animal law full time in a law school. She received her J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary and her LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center.  She is the Director of the Animal Law Clinic and the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative, as well as the faculty advisor for the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund and Animal Law Review at Lewis & Clark.

Professor Hessler co-authored Animal Law in a Nutshell (with Pamela Frasch and Sonia Waisman), Animal Law – New Perspectives on Teaching Traditional Law (with Joyce Tischler, Pamela Hart, and Sonia Waisman) and the amicus briefs submitted in the U.S. v. Stevens and Justice v. Gwendolyn Vercher cases. She has written numerous law review and other articles and teaches and lectures widely across the U.S. and internationally and is working on a new book, Aquatic Animal Law.

Stephanie O'Flynn Conference 21
Keynote Speaker: Marina Surkova, animal welfare lawyer (Ukraine)
Marina Surkova is a leading lawyer for animal welfare across Ukraine. Qualified in economics and the law she advises Government on animal related matters.

 Most recently she achieved success with the passing of a comprehensive range of animal laws covering wild, farm and companion animals. She provides legal assistance to animal welfare groups, owners and trains the police how to investigate crimes.  Marina Surkova is a member of many working groups on issues from biodiversity to stray animal management.

Duffield
Keynote Speaker: Danielle Duffield (UK)

Danielle Duffield practises international arbitration and litigation and is an adjunct animal law lecturer. She has been involved in animal advocacy work in Europe, the United States, and New Zealand, including through policy projects, litigation, academic work and movement building. She co-founded and served as president of New Zealand’s animal law advocacy organisation, the New Zealand Animal Law Association, and co-chairs the Farmed Animal Welfare Committee of the UK Centre for Animal Law. She has published articles on animal law in various law journals including the New Zealand Universities Law Review, the New Zealand Law Journal, and the UK Journal of Animal Law. She has a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, where she was a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow. 

Keynote Speaker: Ian Robertson (New Zealand)

Ian Robertson is the unusual career combination of veterinarian turned lawyer. He combined those careers working as a Prosecutor in New Zealand, Statewide Specialist in Australia, and now works as a Barrister in New Zealand and overseas advising, litigating, teaching and publishing on the subject of animal law. He is the Principal of Guardianz Animal Law and Co-founder of the Sentient Animal Law Foundation

Dr Rachel Dunn Conference 21
Dr Rachel Dunn, Northumbria University (UK)

Dr Rachel Dunn is a Senior Lecturer at Northumbria Law School. She researches and teaches animal law, supervising dissertations and PhDs in this area. She also teaches in the Policy Clinic, supervising animal law projects for external organisations with the aim of influencing policy and law reform.

Jessica Horton Conference 21
Jessica Horton, Northumbria University (UK)

Jessica Horton commenced her PhD at Northumbria University in October 2018 and is due to submit her thesis in September 2021. Her research has focused on the legal and moral status of service dogs in England and Wales. She will be joining DEFRA’s companion animal welfare policy team this summer.

Dr Simon Brooman Conference 21
Dr Simon Brooman, Liverpool John Moores University (UK)

Dr Simon Brooman is a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University where he teaches animal law. He is co-author of one of the earliest legal textbooks in Britain on animal law, the Law Relating to Animals Welfare (Brooman and Legge, Cavendish 1997) and is co-chair of A-Law’s Animal Experimentation Law Working Group.

Dr Legge
Dr Debbie Legge, The Open University (UK)

Dr Debbie Legge studied environmental law as part of her law degree at the University of Sheffield. She set up and taught environmental law and animal law courses whilst at Liverpool John Moores University. She has written on both areas of law. She was a member of the consumer regulatory body for water and now is an associate lecturer at the Open University where they will soon be teaching a course on environmental law. She co-authored one of the earliest legal textbooks in Britain on animal law, the ‘Law Relating to Animals Welfare’ (Brooman and Legge, Cavendish 1997).

Josh Howitt Conference 21
Josh Jowitt, University of Newcastle (UK)

Josh Jowitt is a lecturer in law at Newcastle Law School, where he specialises in contemporary natural law theory.

Corrina Lewis Conference 21
Corrina Lewis, PhD Candidate University of Liverpool (UK)

Having completed her undergraduate degree in Law at the University of Liverpool and her masters degree in Anthrozoology at the University of Exeter, Corrina Lewis is currently undertaking her PhD in Law, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. Her thesis is examining the legal status of companion animals in the UK, utilising relational theory and asymmetric frameworks such as the European Convention on Human Rights with the aim of according personhood to nonhuman animals.

Aurélia Prasliková Conference 21
Aurélia Prasliková, PhD candidate Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona (Spain)

Aurélia Prasliková graduated from the Pan-European Law University in Slovakia, with specialization in International Law. She achieved her LL.M. title at Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona, where she is currently studying a Ph.D. program. Her research is focused on an emerging sub-system of International Law- Global Animal Law

Alice Di Concetto Conference 21
Alice Di Concetto, Consultant in European Animal Law and Policy (Europe)

Alice Di Concetto is a lecturer in European animal law at the Sorbonne Law School. She additionally founded the European Institute for Animal Law & Policy, where she serves as a consultant in European animal law & policy to major EU-based animal protection nonprofits and public administrations.

Debbie Rook Conference 21
Debbie Rook, Northumbria University (UK)

Debbie Rook is a principal lecturer in law at Northumbria Law School, Northumbria University where she has set up a module in Animal Law on the undergraduate law degree 18 years ago and has been teaching it ever since with 60-80 students choosing the module each year. She recently completed her professional doctorate titled ‘More-than-human families in multi-species tenancies: A critical analysis of ‘no pet’ covenants and the law’ and has published on this topic (Rook (2018) ‘For the Love of Darcie: recognising the human-companion animal relationship in housing law and policy’, Liverpool Law Review 29).

Stephanie O'Flynn Conference 21
Stephanie O'Flynn, Waterford Institute of Technology (Ireland)

Stephanie O’ Flynn is a Lecturer in Law in the Department of Law and Criminal Justice at Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland. Stephanie holds a B.A. (Hons) in Legal Studies with Business (WIT), an LL.M. (UCC) and a Ph.D. (NUIG). Her doctoral thesis is entitled “From Animal Welfare to Animal Rights: Changing the Legal Paradigm for Animals.” Stephanie’s main lines of research focus on the legal status of animals, animal rights theory and EU and comparative animal protection law.

Stephanie O'Flynn Conference 21
Sarah Wilson, University of York (UK)

Sarah Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in Law at York Law School, University of York, UK. After reading Law at Cardiff Law School she commenced studies in Modern British History gaining a MA (History) and PhD (History) before taking up a number of posts in UK Law Schools. Sarah’s  2014 monograph The Origins of Modern Financial Crime: Historical foundations and current problems in Britain is an entreaty for legal analysis to embrace more extensively greater utilization of history and historical methodology for achieving more rounded understandings of law itself and its interactions with society and social change.  It is from the combination of this intellectual viewpoint, with a lifelong passion in her non-professional life for achieving better human-non human animal relationships, that Sarah’s nascent research in the sphere of ‘Animals and Law’ has taken shape.

Stephanie O'Flynn Conference 21
Shreya Padukone, National Academy for Legal Studies and Research (India)

Shreya Padukone is a Research Associate with the Animal Law Centre at the National Academy for Legal Studies and Research, India, where she works primarily to further animal law and policy. She has been a part of the core team organizing three editions of India’s first postgraduate program in Animal Protection Laws. She is also a part of the first cohort of the HSI/India Farm Animal Protection Leadership Programme. 

Debbie Rook Conference 21
Marie Fox, University of Liverpool (UK)

Marie Fox holds the Queen Victoria Chair of Law at the University of Liverpool.  Her research is concerned with the legal governance of human and animal bodies, legal conceptions of embodiment and regulation of reproduction.  Current projects (funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust, Socio-legal Studies Association and Economic and Social Research Council) focus on pet loss and the place of companion animals in care homes, abortion law reform in Northern Ireland, governance of assisted reproductive technologies and direct to consumer testing, and legal regulation of genital cutting. She is a trustee of North West English Springer Spaniel Rescue.

Stephanie O'Flynn Conference 21
Michael Toze, Lincoln Medical School

Michael Toze is Lecturer in Public Health and Social Determinants of Health at the Lincoln Medical School. He previously worked in local government policy and performance management before commencing a PhD in LGBT+ ageing. He has an interest in a range of topics related to public health, health inequalities, LGBT health and ageing. He worked as Research Fellow on the ‘He Means the World to Me’ project, funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust to explore the place of companion animals within care homes. https://www.petsincarehomes.com

McCulloch
Dr Steven McCulloch, University of Winchester (UK)

Steven McCulloch is Senior Lecturer in Human-Animal Studies and Programme Leader for the BA Animal Welfare and Society. He qualified as a veterinary surgeon in 2002 from Bristol University and holds a BA Philosophy from Birbeck College, London University. He has a PhD from the RVC, London for his thesis ‘The British animal health and welfare policy process: accounting for the interests of sentient species’.

During 2018-2020 Steven has been writing on the impact of Brexit on animal protection. His research applies animal welfare impact assessment to Brexit. His work argues that Brexit poses substantial risks to weaken animal protection in the UK, EU an internationally. Steven has developed the website Chlorinated Chicken Brexit, focused on Brexit, trade deals and sentient beings. The website includes a comprehensive comparative analysis of UK and US farm animal welfare standards.

Steven is Section Editor for Animals in Public Policy, Politics and Society for the journal Animals. He is on the editorial board for the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (JAGE). Steven coordinates the monthly ‘Everyday Ethics’ column in the professional veterinary journal In Practice.

Steven is a diplomat of ECAWBM and a recognised veterinary specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law. He was the AWSELVA representative organising the ECAWBM/AWSELVA/ESVCE/PsiAnimal Congress in Portugal 2016.

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