Launch of Animal Law Discussion Group

Last week, the Animal Law Discussion Group  (ALDG) was launched within the Oxford Law Faculty. The group aims to provide a forum for discussion between students, faculty members, and practitioners on topics relating to animal law. All things relating to animals and the law will be discussed, including inter alia: the legal and moral status of animals, all aspects of the law as it applies to animals including in the agriculture and life sciences sectors, the environmental impacts of animal use, and animal rights more generally and what these might look like. The ALDG aims to foster interdisciplinary interaction so that it can consider how work from other disciplines can feed into research on the legal treatment of animals and how this legal work might inform the work of those from other disciplines.

The group’s first meeting will take place on Wednesday 19 February with one of the leading authorities in animal law in the UK, Mike Radford OBE (University of Aberdeen). Mike Radford is a leader in the animal law field and was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to animal welfare law. In 1992 he established the first course in animal welfare law to be offered by a law school in the UK; and his book Animal Welfare Law in Britain: Regulation and Responsibility (2001) remains one of the most detailed books outlining animal welfare law in the UK.

Mike Radford' talk 'Animal Attraction: What Animals Have to Offer Lawyers - And How Lawyers Can Benefit Animals' will give us a broad overview of the history of animal law in the UK and will discuss what he believes will be the future trends in the field. He will also discuss his experiences giving evidence before Parliament, in particular in relation to the recent Animals (Recognition of Sentience) Bill (not enacted) and the Wild Animals in Circuses Bill (now enacted as Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019). There will be plenty of time for Q&A and discussion thereafter.

If you would like to join the ALDG mailing list, please email animallawdiscussiongroup-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk