Animal Law
Spring term, Block A
M,T 8:40 AM - 10:10 AM
Mr. Paul Waldau
3 classroom credits LAW-30550A
This is a basic course in animal law in which the student engages a broad range of cases, legislation, and concepts as they pertain to nonhuman animals. After a brief introduction on the history and current status of nonhuman animals in the U.S. legal system, the first part of the course examines substantive law in the areas of property, contracts, torts, wills and trusts, and criminal law. Woven throughout the discussion of substantive law are comments and questions regarding current cultural attitudes towards animals outside the human species. The second part of the course uses (a) the material from the first part of the course and (b) various constitutional and common law principles to assess current proposals that basic legal concepts, such as "rights" and "legal personhood," should be afforded some nonhuman animals. The third part of the course uses the tools and perspectives developed in Parts I and II to examine various federal and state legislation impacting other animals. The required texts will be Frasch et al., Animal Law (2000), and S. Wise, Rattling the Cage (2000).