Alumni Showcase Their Expertise at Harvard Law School
CALS’ alumni share their expertise as animal law leaders from around the world during a 3-day event to workshop their authored chapters for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Global Animal Law.
Open gallery
We are proud that many of our Animal Law LLM alumni are recognized as top experts in the field, and ten of them recently participated in a three-day academic workshop at Harvard Law School. These alumni flew to Cambridge from around the world to attend the invite-only Country Reports Workshop for the Oxford Handbook of Global Animal Law. The Workshop, co-hosted by Harvard Law School and the Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) from Oct 31-Nov 2, 2022, brought together authors, editors, and other animal law experts to workshop first drafts of 18 Country Reports over the course of three days.
The Handbook of Global Animal Law, to be published by Oxford University Press, will be a comprehensive reference work that establishes the field of Global Animal Law, and serves as a platform for future legal research. The term “Global Animal Law” encapsulates the various ‘levels’ of national, international, supranational, and local laws which impact and govern animal law issues around the world. The term also includes both international law i.e. treaties and conventions, as well as topics currently addressed only through national laws.
The Handbook is being edited by Dr. Anne Peters and Saskia Stucki of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law as well as Professor Kristen Stilt of the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School.
In an attempt to identify international developments in animal law, the Handbook contains a section on “Country Reports”. These Country Reports provide an overview of the legal and regulatory animal protection frameworks in featured countries and shed light on critical issues in and salient features of those jurisdictions.
The “Country Reports” section of the Handbook pays special attention to jurisdictions from the Global South, as well as countries which currently lack robust animal law scholarship. Country Reports discussed during the Workshop included: Baltic States, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Pakistan, Poland, Peru, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The Workshop participants read each draft Country Report and provided detailed feedback to the respective authors.
In addition to providing an opportunity for authors to receive feedback on their Country Report, the Workshop was an excellent platform for animal law scholars to connect with one another and engage in vibrant discussions on contemporary issues in global animal law and policy.
With CALS being a thought leader in the field of animal law with wide-ranging international impact, its faculty and alumni were featured heavily at the Workshop. Professor Raj Reddy, Director of the Animal Law Program and Professor Pamela Frasch, Professor of Law and Brooks McCormick Jr. Scholar of Animal Law and Policy, moderated multiple Workshop sessions and provided valuable insights and feedback to the participants.
CALS faculty and alumni who authored Country Reports or other chapters* for the Handbook include:
- Bolivia - Lorna Munoz, LLM ’19
- Chile - Diego Plaza, LLM ’20
- Japan - Moe Honjo, LLM ’14
- Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries: Lyudmila Shegay, LLM ’20
- Kenya - Jim Karani, LLM ’16
- Pakistan - Hira Jaleel, Teaching Fellow at CALS and LLM ’20
- South Africa - Amy Wilson, LLM ’19
- Switzerland - Gieri Bolliger, LLM, ’14*(Case Note: Swiss Animal Dignity Case Law)
- Tanzania - Paul Kadushi, LLM ’20
- Uganda - Gladys Kamasanyu, LLM ‘ 20
- Zimbabwe - Ever Vimbai Chinoda, LLM ’17
Additionally, Professor Pamela Frasch authored a Note on the importance of Global Animal Law Education.
Once published, the Handbook will serve as a unique and valuable resource for animal law students, practitioners and scholars from all over the world who may be interested in learning more about Global Animal Law.
The Workshop was a wonderful opportunity to examine the global impact of animal law, with more and more practitioners and scholars researching and writing about animal protection and nonhuman animal interests. It also offered a unique perspective into the diverse animal law issues around the world. A key takeaway from the Workshop was how, while globalization is exacerbating animal exploitation, it is also allowing opportunities for knowledge-sharing, which in turn enables us to protect the interests of nonhuman animals through the law.
After the Workshop, Hira Jaleel, CALS Teaching Fellow and alumna, and alumni Jim Karani and Moe Honjo were guest lecturers in Professor Kristen Stilt’s Farmed Animals Seminar at Harvard Law School. The speakers discussed the current state of animal agriculture in their respective countries and examined trends going forward. The talks were followed by questions from students in the class, and produced an engaging discussion on the legal and policy issues germane to farmed animal protections globally.
After a productive and enriching three days, the Workshop served as a perfect segue to the Animal Law Conference the following weekend, co-hosted by CALS and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, with many participants from the Workshop heading onwards to Portland, Oregon to celebrate 30 years of progress for animals.
