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Animal Law - LAWS8194
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Faculty: Faculty of Law
 
 
School:  Faculty of Law
 
 
Course Outline: See below
 
 
Campus: Kensington Campus
 
 
Career: Postgraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 6
 
 
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
Prerequisite: Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740 or 9230
 
 
Excluded: JURD7494
 
 
Fee Band: 3 (more info)
 
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
 

Description

Animal law may be briefly defined as the statutory and case law in which the nature - legal, social or biological - of nonhuman animals is an important factor. After examining a current high profile animal issue, the live export of animals from Australia, the course looks at the context for animal law: modern and past ethics and jurisprudence on the way that humans think of and treat animals. The course looks at major topics in black letter law: animals as property and the implications of treating them as property; standing to represent the interest of animals; protection from cruelty; companion animal law; the liability of owners and keepers of animals; laws relating to agriculture; ethics, ethical guidelines and law of using animals for research; wild animals, wildlife animal and threatened species law, and game and hunting law; and the regulation of veterinarians.


LLM Specialisations

Corporate, Commercial and Taxation Law; Human Rights and Social Justice.

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

The course aims to give students a good grounding in black letter animal law, as informed by philosophy, jurisprudence and history. Students will be exposed to a broad range of viewpoints on the many contentious subjects raised in the course. The discipline is in its infancy, even more so in Australia, and an open and enquiring approach will be encouraged.

Main Topics

  • A recent contentious animal issue: the live export of animals
  • Similarities and differences between humans and nonhuman animals and the ethics of animal treatment
  • The work of theorists
  • The religious, Western classical period, medieval and enlightenment thinking
  • The implications from the historically derived practice of classifying animals as property
  • Protection from cruelty
  • Companion animal law
  • The ethics, ethical guidelines and law of using animals for research
  • Animals in the wild, wildlife animal and threatened species law
  • The regulation of veterinarians

Assessment

Class participation 15%
Research essay or project 85%
 

Course Texts

Prescribed
The only required texts are the Course Materials. Because of the intensive nature of the course, students will be expected to have read the first half of the readings for the course before turning up for the first day.

Recommended
Refer to Course Materials.

Resources

Refer to Course Materials.

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© The University of New South Wales (CRICOS Provider No.: 00098G), 2004-2011. The information contained in this Handbook is indicative only. While every effort is made to keep this information up-to-date, the University reserves the right to discontinue or vary arrangements, programs and courses at any time without notice and at its discretion. While the University will try to avoid or minimise any inconvenience, changes may also be made to programs, courses and staff after enrolment. The University may also set limits on the number of students in a course.