Talking Animals, Law & Philosophy
Ever since its inception in 2015, the Talking Animals, Law & Philosophy series has been providing a welcoming, engaging and rigorous forum for debate and ideas about the relations between animals, law, and philosophy. All events in this series are free and open to all. The views expressed in these talks are those of the respective speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law.
The series is made possible through generous sponsorship by the International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR). The work of the Centre is supported by the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy.
Upcoming talks
Book launch “More Equal Than Others: Humans and the Rights of Other Animals” (OUP 2024)
6 May 2024, 5-6.30pm (on Zoom)
Raffael Fasel
Affiliated Lecturer in Law, University of Cambridge, and Co-Director, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law
Respondents: Maneesha Deckha (University of Victoria); Justin Marceau (University of Denver); Joe Wills (University of Leicester)
“The Fly in the Ointment: The Problem and Promise of Insect Law and Ethics”
9 May 2024, 5-6.30pm (on Zoom)
Rajesh Reddy
Assistant Professor of Law and Animal Law Program Director, Lewis & Clark Law School
“The Rise and Fall of Animal Experimentation”
29 May 2024, 5-6.30pm (on Zoom)
Richard Miller
Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology, Northwestern University
“Canis unfamiliaris: Species Stories and Species Categories”
6 June 2024, 5-6.30pm (on Zoom)
Mariam Motamedi-Fraser
Reader in Sociology, Goldsmiths University of London
Past talks
“Decolonizing Animals: Elephants and the End of Empire in Myanmar”
6 March 2024, 5-6.30pm (on Zoom)
Jonathan Saha
Professor of South Asian History, Department of History, Durham University
“Losing the Trees for the Forest: A Critique of Rights of Nature as a Basis for Animal Rights”
27 February 2024
Serrin Rutledge-Prior
Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; Visiting Researcher, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law
“Dog-aganda: How the State Uses Dogs to Manufacture Consent for Violence”
20 February 2024
El Jones
Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics, Economics, and Canadian Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University; Visiting Researcher, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law
“Animal Law and Regulation in China”
8 February 2024
Deborah Cao
Professor at the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University
“A Republic of Fellow Sufferers: Why and How We Should Grant Rights to Nature”
30 January 2024
Sergio Dellavalle
Professor of Public Law and State Theory at the University of Turin; Visiting Fellow, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law
“Justice for Animals: a Wrong-Turn for the Capabilities Approach?”
18 January 2024
David Bilchitz
Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa; Professor of Law at the University of Johannesburg and the University of Reading
“Animal Sentience and Interspecies Welfare Comparisons”
30 November 2023
Jonathan Birch
Professor of Philosophy, London School of Economics
“A Bioethical Engagement with the Canadian Council on Animal Care Revised Ethics Document”
21 November 2023
Andrew Fenton
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Dalhousie University
“Fighting for Animals in a Moment of Danger”
14 November 2023
Claire Jean Kim
Professor of Political Science and Asian American Studies, University of California, Irvine
“The Fantastical Animal”
17 October 2023
David M. Peña-Guzmán
Associate Professor of Humanities, San Francisco State University
“Animal Plaintiffs”
16 May 2023
Matthew Liebman
Associate Professor and Chair of the Justice for Animals Program, University of San Francisco School of Law
“Sentience and Intrinsic Worth as a Pluralist Foundation for Fundamental Animal Rights”
4 May 2023, 1-2.30pm (UK time)
Jane Kotzmann
Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Deakin Law School
“The Synergism of Animal Law and Science”
25 April 2023
Lori Marino
Executive Director, The Kimmela Center for Scholarship-based Animal Advocacy
Book launch “Animal Rights Law” (Hart 2023)
29 March 2023
Raffael Fasel
Affiliated Lecturer at the Law Faculty, University of Cambridge, and Executive Director, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law
Sean Butler
Affiliated Lecturer at the Law Faculty, University of Cambridge, Fellow of St Edmund’s College, and Director, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law
Coversation led by Cebuan Bliss (Radboud) and Joshua Jowitt (Newcastle)
“Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for Domesticated Animals”
14 March 2023
Paulina Siemieniec
Visiting Researcher, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Queen’s University
Book launch “One Rights: Human and Animal Rights in the Anthropocene” (Springer 2023)
8 March 2023
Saskia Stucki
Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
Comments by Sergio Dellavalle (Turin), Michaël Lessard (Toronto/CCARL), and Paulina Siemieniec (Queen’s University/CCARL)
“Beyond Sentience: The Possibilities of Agency and Sociability Legal Recognition”
28 February 2023
Michaël Lessard
Visiting Researcher, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and SJD candidate at the University of Toronto
“Dolphins, Captivity, Flourishing and Rights: The Challenge of Interspecies Ethics”
18 January 2023, 5-6.30 pm (UK time)
Thomas White
Conrad N Hilton Chair in Business Ethics Emeritus, Loyola Marymount University
“Which ‘All Subjected’-Principle for Animals?”
1 December 2022
Peter Niesen
Professor of Political Theory, University of Hamburg
Book launch “The Rights of Apes” (Trotta 2022)
23 November 2022
Paula Casal
Professor at ICREA, and Research Professor, Department of Law, University of Pompeu Fabra
Peter Singer
Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
Comments by Carolina Leiva Ilabaca, University of Chile/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and former Visiting Researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law.
“Animals as Property, Quasi-Property or Quasi-Person”
19 October 2022
Angela Fernandez
Full Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Book launch “Carceral Logics” (CUP 2022)
30 May 2022
Justin Marceau
Professor of Law, Brooks Institute Faculty Research Scholar of Animal Law and Policy, Sturm College of Law, University of Denver
Lori Gruen
William Griffin Professor of Philosophy, Wesleyan University
“The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022: Stating the Obvious or an Obvious Step up?”
23 May 2022
Paula Sparks
Chair of the UK Centre for Animal Law
“Slaughterhouse Workers, Animals, and the Environment: The Need for a Rights-Centered Regulatory Framework in the United States That Recognizes Interconnected Interests”
10 May 2022
Delcianna J. Winders
Associate Professor of Law, Vermont Law School
Elan Abrell
Adjunct Instructor in Anthropology and Animal Studies, NYU Department of Anthropology
“Exploring the Foundations for Legal Animal Rights: Towards a Sentience-interest Pragmatic Account”
1 March 2022
Carolina Leiva Ilabaca
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law, PhD in Law candidate, University of Chile and Autonomous University of Barcelona
“Examining Consent-based Justifications for Human-Animal Interactions”
24 February 2022, 5.00-6.30pm (UK time)
Katharina Braun
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law, PhD in Law candidate, Free University of Berlin
“Animal Research that Respects Animal Rights: Extending Ethical Research Requirements from Humans to Animals”
8 February 2022, 5.00-6.30pm (UK time)
Angela Martin
Assistant Professor in Philosophy, University of Basel
“The War against Animals: The State and Private Dominion”
27 January 2022
Dinesh Wadiwel
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney
“Animals at Work: Cultivating Interspecies Solidarity and Humane Jobs”
25 January 2022
Kendra Coulter
Associate Professor in Labour Studies, Brock University
“Animals and the Common Law”
2 December 2021
Joe Wills
Lecturer, Leicester Law School
“The Puzzle of Animal Dignity”
19 November 2021
Visa Kurki
Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki
“Animal Legal Subjectivity: Emerging Models, Enduring Problems”
21 October 2021
Jessica Eisen
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta
“Rights-Holding Persons and the Personhood and Rights They Hold”
7 June 2021
Ankita Shanker
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law, PhD in Law candidate, University of Basel
“International Law, General Principles, and Animal Welfare”
18 May 2021
Katie Sykes
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University
“Animal Law: Human Duties or Animal Rights?”
6 May 2021
Torben Spaak
Professor in Jurisprudence, Department of Law, Stockholm University
“The Recognition of Wild Animal Communities in the Australian Constitution”
17 March 2021
Pablo Pérez Castelló
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law; PhD candidate at Royal Holloway University of London
“Caring in Non-Ideal Conditions: Animal Rescue Organisations and Morally Justified Killing”
5 March 2021
Angie Pepper
Lecturer in Humanities, University of Roehampton
“The Elephant in the Room: Happy and the Normative Structure of Legal Personhood”
24 February 2021
Joshua Jowitt
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law; Lecturer in Law, Newcastle University
“Animals as Legal Persons: A Necessity or a Luxury? A Perspective from Continental Law”
4 February 2021
Eva Bernet Kempers
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law; PhD candidate, University of Antwerp
“Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders”
26 January 2021
Maneesha Deckha
Professor, Lansdowne Chair in Law, University of Victoria
“Advancing the Social Justice Interests of Nonhuman and Human Animals Through Pursuit of Due Process for Dogs”
10 December 2020
Taimie Bryant
Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
“Ag-Gag in Canada and the Constitutional Right to See”
12 November 2020
Jodi Lazare
Assistant Professor of Law, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University
“Animal Harm: Perspectives on Why People Harm and Kill Animals”
23 October 2020
Angus Nurse
Associate Professor in Criminology and Sociology, Middlesex University
“Should We Try to Prevent and/or Relieve Wild Animal Suffering?”
11 March 2020
Clare Palmer
Professor of Liberal Arts and Philosophy, Texas A&M University
“On the Ubiquity of Human-Animal Conflict and What Transitional Justice Can Contribute to Its Resolution”
3 March 2020
Charlotte Blattner
Senior Researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Bern
“Zoorisprudence: How Should the Law Treat Animals?”
26 February 2020
Nick Ampt
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law; PhD in Law candidate, University of Melbourne
“Intersectionality and the Animal Rights Movement”
10 February 2020
Robyn Trigg
Visiting Student, Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law; DPhil in Law candidate, University of Oxford
“Milking Mothers: the Regulation of Human and Animal Milks”
3 February 2020
Yoriko Otomo
Research Associate, SOAS University of London; Director, Global Research Network
“Aesop and the Greek Law of Animals”
1 November 2019
Fred Naiden
Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of History
“Animal Rights and Veganism as a Moral Imperative”
14 May 2019
Gary Francione
Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy, Rutgers University Law School; Honorary Professor (Philosophy), University of East Anglia
“Humans and Their Relationships with Working Animals in Early Modern England: The Value and Problem of Legal Evidence”
28 March 2019
Erica Fudge
Professor of English, School of Humanities, University of Strathclyde
“Freedom of Religion v. Animal Welfare: The Case of Unstunned Ritual Slaughter”
31 January 2019
Paul Cliteur
Professor of Jurisprudence, Law School, Leiden University
“An Animal History of Zoos”
2 May 2018
Violette Pouillard
Postdoctoral Assistant in History, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University
“The Struggle of the Nonhuman Rights Project for the Legal Personhood of Non-human Animals”
5 April 2018
Steven Wise
Founder and President of the Nonhuman Rights Project
“The Unhappy Marriage of Animality and Cognitive Disability”
6 March 2018
Alice Crary
Scholar at the Princeton Institute of Advanced Study, School of Social Science; Professor of Philosophy and Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics, University of Oxford
“Suffering in Non-human Animals”
23 January 2018
Peter Fordyce
RSPCA and Blue Cross Clinician & Affiliated Lecturer in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge
“Values in Animal Cognitive Science”
22 November 2017
Marta Halina
University Lecturer in the Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
“Are Human Rights Animals’ Rights, Too?”
2 May 2017
Saskia Stucki
Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg
“Collective Responsibility: Animals, the State, and Public Policy”
5 April 2017
Mike Radford
Reader, School of Law, University of Aberdeen
“A Theory of Global Inter-Species Justice”
15 February 2017
Alasdair Cochrane
Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield
“Three Puzzles for Animal Rights: Cows, Lions, and Featherless Chickens”
17 November 2016
Jeff Skopek
Lecturer in Medical Law, Ethics and Policy, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
“Animal Law and Environmental Law: Parallels and Synergies” &
“A Person by Any Other Name? Potential Legal Recognition of Non-human Animal Legal Personhood in Australia and the United States”
11 & 12 October 2016
Randall Abate
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Florida A&M University
“Animals and Democratic Theory: Beyond an Anthropocentric Approach”
10 May 2016
Robert Garner
Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester
“A Moderate Position on the Political and Legal Status of Sentient Animals”
26 February 2016
Ben Sachs
Lecturer in Philosophy, School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies, University of St. Andrews
“‘Some Are More Equal Than Others’: The Protection of Animals Under UK Law”
9 February 2016
Natalie Cargill
Pupil Barrister, Littleton Chambers
“The Status of Non-human Animals: Science, Philosophy, Law”
(with an introduction by Jeff Skopek)
27 November 2015
Michael Bowman
Associate Professor in Law, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham