From Resource to Rightsholder: Towards Legal Personhood for Whales
By Marianthi Baklava Following He Whakaputanga Moana (the landmark Declaration for the Ocean signed by Polynesian Indigenous leaders in March 2024), momentum continues to build for recognising whales as legal persons. The initiative forms part of wider conservation...
Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain – Recent Update
By Divya Selvaraj The Zoo Licensing Act (1981) defines zookeeping as the keeping of an animal "when it is elsewhere in the personal possession of the operator of the zoo, or of competent persons acting on his behalf".1 Read together with the Zoo Licensing Act 1981:...
Could Emerging Research on Snake Enrichment Influence Interpretation of the UK Animal Welfare Act?
By Bridget Craghill While snakes are often excluded from mainstream animal welfare discussions, new research is rapidly reshaping scientific and legal understandings of their needs. A new study suggests that housing conditions have significant neurological and...
The Case for a UK Ban on Male Chick Culling
by Jenny Canham Routine male chick culling in the UK Male chick culling is a routine practice in the UK egg industry. Every year, around 45 million male chicks are killed within just hours of being born. Because they are not female, and therefore cannot lay eggs, they...
A Legal Imagination Made Real: The Paula Sparks World Moot on International Law and Animal Rights
By Josephine Götze, LL.M. candidate Imagine a world in which humans respect and protect the fundamental rights of non-human animals, such as the right to life, the right not to be exploited, or the right to freedom of movement, not only because it is ethically right,...
“The trial of Bill Burn” – myth and facts
By Advocate Lior Harish The Iconic painting called "The trial of Bill Burn" (see below) is regarded by many (including the UK parliament) as portraying the first1 prosecution under the 'Act to prevent the cruel and improper...
RIGHTS OF NATURE AND NONHUMAN ANIMAL RIGHTS: CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN TOGETHER?
By David Lewis-Hall, Barrister The New Zealand Parliament has recently granted (1) legal personhood to a third natural entity, following Te Urewera (a forest) in 2014 (2) and Te Awa Tupua (the Whanganui River) in 2017. (3) Whilst this, along with other recent...
Puppy, Kuky and Sandro: Interspecies Justice Beyond the Friction of Mentalities
By Aldair Marins Violent interventionism, the theft of natural ethos and, consequently, the silencing of vital expressions have imposed a cruel fate on Puppy, Kuky and Sandro. For around three decades, these elephants were held in captivity, deprived of the exercise...
An obituary in honour of longstanding A-LAW Chairperson Paula Sparks
It is with great sadness – and an immense sense of loss – that we inform our friends and supporters that our wonderful Chairperson, Paula Sparks, passed away on the 30th of May 2025. Over the past 15 months, Paula’s daily life was increasingly affected by the symptoms...
More-than-Humanitarian Law
By Dr Dorien Braam During my doctoral research conducted in Jordan and Pakistan into the role of animals in forced migration and zoonoses - diseases transmissible between humans and animals - the devastation as a result of the loss of animals killed as a result of...