Why Do We Need a Global Animal Law?

Anne Peters

There is no global regulation, let alone any hard-law treaties, that deal with the interactions between humans and animals even though these have been globalized in many areas, such as for food, agriculture, or the procurement of pets. This is why ANNE PETERS has initiated a research program on Global Legal Animal Studies as she explains in this video. Analyzing international law and comparing domestic laws, she has established trends and found bits and pieces in some legal issue areas that may amount to a body of global animal law. She hopes that these results provide a source of inspiration and argumentation for lawmakers worldwide to develop global animal law further.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10534

Researcher

Anne Peters is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law Heidelberg (Germany), and a professor at the universities of Heidelberg, Freie Universität Berlin, Basel (Switzerland), and a L. Bates Lea Global Law professor at the Law School of the University of Michigan. She is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and an associate member of the Institut de Droit International. She was a member (substitute) of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) in respect of Germany (2011-2015) and a legal expert for the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia (2009). Anne Peters was President of the German Society of International Law (DGIR) from 2019-2023. She was also President of the European Society of International Law (2010-2012) and has served on the governance board of various learned societies such as the German Association of Constitutional Law (VDStRL) and the Society of International Constitutional Law (I CON-S).

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law work in a variety of legal fields, addressing a broad spectrum of topics, and using diverse methods. The research deals with issues of public international law, European law and domestic public law. Research questions vary, and range from the doctrinal and theoretical analysis of fundamental issues over a systematisation or systematic comparison of legal norms to proposals for law reform and solutions for current legal problems. The research of the Institute is characterised by thematic, theoretical and methodological pluralism. It is part of the mission of a Max Planck Institute to foster and practice academic pluralism. A number of events and projects at the Institute are aimed at confronting the different thematic and methodological approaches with each other and at allowing for a mutually stimulating dialogue. This is also one of the reasons why the Institute is not formally divided into departments. Our research starts from the premise that public international law should constitute a global order, and should ideally be neither just one manifestation of national or regional hegemony nor merely an instrument for realising particular policy interests. Projects of the Institute seek to study and elaborate both the normative autonomy of international law and its quality as a global, not regionally or culturally fragmented order. They thus seek to contribute to the further globalisation of the discourse on international law. Because public international law and domestic public law are closely interdependent, a doctrinal, theoretical, empirical, ethical and interdisciplinary examination of both bodies of law and their mutual relations is needed. A number of studies are dedicated specifically to the linkages between international, supranational and domestic regimes. In this context, comparative law is not considered as a separate academic discipline, but as an integral part of doctrinal, theoretical, and empirical analysis.