Amy P. Wilson received the International Advocates Animal Law LLM Scholarship in 2017 and was the first South African to graduate with an LLM in animal law.
Amy previously served as the Aquatic Animal Law Initiative Fellow at the Center for Animal Law Studies (2019-2021) where she focused on regulation and legal protection for aquatic animals, co-founded World Aquatic Animal Day and assisted with the Animal Law Clinic directed by Professor Kathy Hessler.
Amy is an attorney and researcher with over 16 years of professional legal experience focusing on the intersection of the rights of humans, animals and Nature in law and policy and creative approaches to an inclusive justice system. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of Animal Law Reform South Africa, the country’s first dedicated animal law nonprofit. She is a Research Associate, Lecturer and Doctoral Candidate with the University of Johannesburg and a Senior Adjunct Lecturer with the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She consults for the Aquatic Animal Law Project, Animal Legal Education Initiative at The George Washington University Law School and is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. She previously worked in the animal law program at UCLA University of California, Los Angeles Law School and taught Animal Law at FAMU College of Law.
Amy is an Independent Expert with the United Nations in Harmony with Nature Programme and a founding steering committee member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature: Africa Hub. She leads a number of animal protection organisations throughout Africa and has worked with several leading international animal nonprofits.
Amy has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and has authored several book chapters on animal law. She is currently co-authoring a book on aquatic animal law and co-editing the first animal law book in (South) Africa. Amy co-taught the first animal law course in South Africa and in 2025 she taught the first dedicated Animal Rights and Law Course in Africa at Masters’ Level in Africa.