Launch of the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law

The Centre will be launched on April 26 at an academic workshop entitled "Animal Rights Law: Present and Future" in LG17.

The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law is an academic centre of competence dedicated to the study and promotion of fundamental rights for non-human animals.

Why animal rights law? The welfare of animals has been on moral, social, and legal agendas since the 19th century, and many countries have made significant progress in passing animal welfare legislation. The concept of animal rights as such has also existed for many years but has received less attention for a variety of reasons, including its fundamental challenge to the view of animals as property. Perhaps as a result there is relatively little solid legal work on the understanding of animal rights – what they might look like, and how to deal with the social and economic consequences. Our Centre aims to remedy this situation.

The Centre will be uniquely well positioned to start exploring and defining principles, developing norms, understanding consequences, and drafting national legislation and international treaties. It aims to attract leading researchers and visiting scholars, organise workshops and conferences, and provide teaching to students.

For more information about the Centre, the Centre website.