UNSW Handbook Course - Animal Law

Animal Law - JURD7444


	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: 3
	Enrolment Requirements:
	36 UOC completed in Juris Doctor Program (9150)
	Equivalent: LAWS3144, LAWS8194
	CSS Contribution Charge:Band 3 (more info)
	Tuition Fee:See Tuition Fee Schedule
	Further Information: See Class Timetable

Description

Law plays a substantial role in the ways in which our society relates to animals. As our society increasingly accepts that the protection of animals from cruelty and other forms of mistreatment is important, the study of legal matters relating to animals – ie animal law – is important.

This course looks at the ethics and jurisprudence on the way humans think of and treat animals, the historical and present status of animals as property, the law and science underpinning our approach to animal welfare, standing to represent the interest of animals, and the laws and codes of practice relating to the use of animals for food, research, and entertainment.

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

A candidate who has successfully completed this course should be able to:

analyse the major theoretical approaches to the protection of nonhuman animals;
identify the theoretical assumptions underpinning animal welfare legislation in NSW;
explain the differential operation of the law with respect to different kinds of animals; and
evaluate the role of law in protecting the interests of animals.

Main Topics

People and animals – ethics, history, law, and society
The legal classification of animals as property and the implications of treating them as property
Anti-cruelty law
The regulation of the use of animals for food and entertainment
Ethical guidelines and laws relating to the use of animals for research
Live export
Animals in the wild
Companion animal laws
Free trade constraints on animal welfare standards; and
Animal law – an international perspective.

Assessment

10% Class participation

30% Take-home exam

60% Research paper, 3500 word

(Total word limit: 6,000 words)

Note: If students choose to do the research paper as the total written assessment, class participation will be worth 20%, and the written assessment 80%.

Course Texts

Prescribed

Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand (2010), by Deborah Cao
Course Materials

Recommended

Sankoff P and White S (eds), Animal Law in Australasia, Federation Press, 2009
Caulfield M, Handbook of Australian Animal Cruelty Law (2008)
Favre, D, Animal Law: Welfare, Interests and Rights, Wolters Kluwer, 2008
Francione G, Animals, property and the law, Temple University Press, US, 1995
Radford M, Animal welfare Law in Britain - Regulation and Responsibility, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2001
Regan T and Singer P (eds), Animal Rights and Human Obligations, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA, 1989
Singer P, Animal Liberation, 2nd edn, Pimlico, London, UK. 1995
Sunstein CR and Nussbaum MC (eds), Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, Oxford University Press, New York, 2004
Mancy J (ed), The Australian Animal Protection Law Journal, 2008+

Resources

Refer to the course outline.