Course

Animal Law - LAWS8194

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:

Pre-requisite: Academic Program must be 9200 or 9210 or 9230 or 5740 or 9220 or 5750.

Equivalent: JURD7444, LAWS3144

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

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.
Law Books

Study Levels

UNSW Quick Links