02 February 2026
Legislating Animal Rights
In late 2025, Satipo, a provincial municipality in Peru, recognized the legal rights of “stingless bees” to exist, maintain healthy populations, live in a healthy environment, and conserve and regenerate their habitat. What stands out is that the Peruvian ordinance gives shape to animal rights in a way that differs markedly from the traditional framing of animal rights as a social justice movement aimed at liberating all animals from human exploitation: it recognizes only one type of animal as a subject of rights. This illustrates that scholarship on animal rights may not be keeping pace with the reality of how animal rights are developing in practice. Continue reading >>
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13 October 2025
Labour Entitlements for Labouring Farm Animals
Animal rights discourse involves a persistent tension between the welfare paradigm and the fundamental rights approach. As an alternative to both, I argue that labour entitlements offer a more promising and pragmatic path forward. This framework places the legal approach to animals within a framework that recognises both their economic contribution and their subordination to capital. Continue reading >>
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09 June 2021
Standing for Piglets
In a non-acceptance order of 14 May 2021, the German Federal Constitutional Court refused to accept a constitutional complaint submitted by the German Branch of the animal rights organization PETA for adjudication. The Constitutional Court missed an opportunity to open the constitution to non-anthropocentric approaches. A constitutional amendment might be necessary to explicitly terminate the long-standing mediatization of the natural environment with its negative consequences for the effectiveness of environmental law and protection. Continue reading >>
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30 December 2016