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The law loves to create categories. But classifications like persons vs property can lead to myopic thinking, and miss important nuances. This panel will explore the limitations of current legal frameworks that categorize animals, and propose alternative approaches that highlight other animal characteristics, such as sociability and agency, and draw on queer theory to transcend binary thinking in animal law. Speakers will examine how these alternative approaches might better serve animals' interests and challenge speciesism in the legal system.

This panel will explore government subsidies for animal agriculture, and the challenges of transitioning to a plant-based food system. Panelists will discuss policy solutions to encourage the growth of the plant-based food industry, and reduce the environmental and social costs of animal agriculture. Drawing on their expertise in law, public policy, and sustainable food systems, speakers will provide insights on the opportunities and barriers for transitioning to a more plant-based food system, including alternative protein sources, government support for plant-based foods, and consumer behaviour change.

This panel will focus on the Canadian landscape regarding animal experimentation laws and practices. Panelists will discuss recent developments, such as the establishment of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods at the University of Windsor, new Canadian legislation aimed at banning cosmetic testing on animals and phasing out toxicity testing on animals, and ongoing efforts to improve animal welfare standards for research. The discussion will also address challenges and opportunities for advancing alternatives to animal experimentation, and promoting more ethical and effective scientific research practices in Canada.

This panel will explore legal issues related to companion animals, including pet custody disputes and the unequal tax status of companions compared farmed animals. Speakers will discuss the challenges facing animal advocates and will also address recent developments in animal law, including court decisions and legislative reforms aimed at better protecting companion animals.

This panel will explore recent prosecution and trials in Canada and the US of animal advocates who engage in direct action to rescue animals from or expose conditions inside factory farms. Featuring speakers who have recently been prosecuted, as well as several of the lawyers representing them, the panel will discuss the risks of activism in an increasingly hostile legal environment, the legal defences that have been used in recent trials, and the role of lawyers in representing animal advocates.

Much of animal law scholarship originates from North America, or the Anglosphere more generally. Recently, however, there is an increasing body of scholarship of animal law from continental Europe. In Finland, the first animal law centre from continental Europe has recently been launched as a result of a research project to uncover the foundations of European animal law. By participating in a panel on European animal law, the members of the animal law centre represent this scholarship and spark debate on the similarities and differences within Western animal law scholarship.

Speakers will cover topics including the European Union’s animal welfare law regime, which can offer lessons to other jurisdictions; European wild animal law, including biodiversity and conservation; and defining animal law—the distinction between a restrictive and inclusive account of the field.

Two scholars at the forefront of the animal advocacy movement will discuss the latest developments in animal law and policy through the lens of their newly-published books. The speakers will discuss how scholarship can be used to highlight critical issues and spark social change.

Roughly one in every eight people in Canada is considered to be ‘youth’ under the United Nations’ guidelines. It has been seen within a variety of social justice movements that young people, when given the chance, tools and resources, are more than capable of stepping up and taking impactful action. Within animal rights spaces, however, youth may feel more alienated than inspired, and even when they desire to take action they may feel a lack of opportunities to engage. This begs the question: why isn’t this movement engaging the unique lenses of young people to their fullest potential?

This panel, spearheaded by three young female activists, will explore how Gen Z can be a spark of inspiration and growth for the animal rights movement. It will analyze lessons learned from the successes of other youth-led causes in bringing solutions to a global audience, such as the climate movement, and provide practical takeaways for how and why to engage young people by way of social media. It will also investigate spaces beyond traditional activism, and provide suggestions to professionals regarding how they, too, can involve Gen Z in their work. Those in attendance will learn how to use collaboration with other movements as a tool to bridge more young people into the animal rights movement, and expand their reach in their line of work and/or advocacy.

This panel will examine the state of animal experimentation laws from an international perspective. Panelists will discuss current legislation in different regions of the world, analyze notable cases, and explore possible avenues for reform. Topics will include the use of animals in scientific research, the ethical considerations surrounding experimentation, and the legal protections for animals in different jurisdictions. The panel will provide valuable insights into the complexities of animal experimentation laws and highlight the need for continued engagement on this important issue.

Let’s face it: at most North American law schools, animals are an afterthought. Many schools lack dedicated animal law courses entirely, and those that do offer them often relegate them to adjunct professors who—regardless of their strength as teachers and relevant practice experience—are not fully integrated members of a school’s full-time faculty. Meanwhile, in other courses where animals should ostensibly play starring roles—think Food Law or Climate Change and the Law—animals are instead often completely invisible, the quintessential “absent referent” in Carol Adams’ parlance. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. In this presentation, four educators from The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) in Washington, DC will reflect on the ways in which they are working—collaboratively through the newly launched Animal Legal Education Initiative as well as independently through their own teaching, scholarship, and advocacy—to make animals visible in the legal academy. 

This panel will explore the significance of international law in protecting animals from a range of threats. Participants will gain knowledge on the necessity of a new global protocol for humane handling and treatment of live animals caught in illegal wildlife trade, as well as the impact of armed conflict on animals. Additionally, the panel will discuss the efforts of the International Coalition for Animal Protection in developing the Convention on Animal Protection for Public Health, Animal Well-Being, and the Environment. This session is a valuable opportunity to gain insights into the legal challenges and prospects in safeguarding animals at the international level, and the potential for international collaboration to address these issues.

This panel will examine the importance of sexual and reproductive rights for animals and humans alike, drawing on insights from human rights law. Using an anti-oppression lens, the speakers will discuss how human supremacy contributes to injustices in animal reproduction, and how these issues intersect with larger systems of oppression. Through a nuanced conversation, the panelists will offer strategies for advocating for animal reproductive justice, and shifting policies to ensure greater protections for animals.

This panel will explore the problem of enforcement in animal law, with an emphasis on farming. Starting with a groundbreaking analysis of poor enforcement of UK laws protecting farmed animals, speakers will then explore innovative approaches including the adoption of camera-based monitoring regimes for welfare concerns, and private prosecutions. The panel will also examine the legal and practical challenges associated with implementing these strategies, including the costs, privacy concerns, and potential legal barriers. The discussion will focus on how these approaches can complement traditional enforcement mechanisms, and contribute to more robust and effective enforcement.

This panel will explore the future of animal rights litigation in North America in light of the recent decisions in the high-profile animal rights cases brought on behalf of Happy the Elephant, Justice the Horse, Naruto the Crested Macaque, and others. So far, courts in the United States have been unwilling to rule in favour of animal rights lawsuits – even in progressive, “animal friendly” states like New York and Oregon. Nevertheless, these lawsuits have garnered national and global media attention, and several judges, including on New York’s highest court, have written powerfully in support of animal rights. Given various perspectives within the movement on what approaches are likely to advance animal rights, where should we focus our strategies in the coming years? What will and should the future of US and Canadian animal rights litigation look like? To what extent should we direct our energy to other approaches, such as legislative projects, welfare-based litigation, rights-based litigation in foreign jurisdictions, extra-legal consciousness raising campaigns, or direct action? Bringing together our various and in some ways conflicting perspectives, how might we think differently about what constitutes progress and loss, adjust our strategies and redefine our objectives, and collectively create a climate where animal rights litigation can succeed?'

Four Canadian provinces have passed ag gag laws, and a troubling bill is being considered at the federal level. This panel will explore the legal and ethical implications of ag gag laws, which criminalize undercover investigations of animal agriculture facilities and restrict the freedom of speech of activists and whistleblowers. Panelists will provide an update to ongoing legal challenge to Ontario's ag gag law, and recent prosecutions of animal advocates in Ontario under ag gag laws.

Speakers on this panel will discuss current issues regarding animal rights recognition and protection. The first presentation will examine the significant developments in Ecuador and beyond since a ground-breaking ruling in 2022 recognizing individual animals as subjects of rights protected by the constitutional rights of nature. The presentation will cover the legislative process in Ecuador regarding the law on animal rights, legislative and judicial efforts in other countries using the case as precedent, and the UN's recognition of the rights of nature. The second presentation will discuss the implications of the current perception of animals and their rights on the legal protections afforded to them and on the minds of individuals and civil society. Panelists will argue that a change in the legal and societal status of animals can only be achieved by acknowledging their inherent value, regardless of their usefulness to other objectives.

This panel will examine the current state of farmed animal protection in Canada, including the lack of any serious legal framework to provide regulation and oversight. Speakers will discuss the concrete ways in which Canada's legal system fails farmed animals, and explore other approaches, including pressuring companies to improve animal welfare standards in their supply chains.

This panel will explore the role of creative lawyering in enhancing farmed animal protection and challenging industrial animal agriculture. Panelists will explore several different strategies, including laws, policies, media, undercover investigations, education, litigation, lobbying, and new technology to target the consequences of factory farming, such as animal suffering, environmental degradation, and public health and safety concerns.

In this panel, experts will discuss the legal and policy implications of wild animal culls, using two recent examples. Two speakers will discuss the measures aimed at controlling species considered “non-native” versus “native”, challenging the assumption that non-native animals like mute swans should be reduced in number, or eradicated altogether. Using the proposed deer cull in Longeuil, Quebec as a case study, one speaker will also explore how far the legal recognition of animal sentience can go to protect wild animals from lethal and painful population control strategies.