Back to the future

Picture this, a courtroom somewhere in France in the early 16th century. A sharpwitted lawyer struts across the floor, waving his hand nonchalantly in the air as he eloquently champions the defence of his client.

But his client, or rather clients are nowhere to be seen. Yet due to his clever ‘wordsmithory’ and ingenious legal tactics, Bartholomé Chassenée was able to convince the learned judge his clients fears for their life were justifiably held and as such that they could not attend (the presence of neighbourhood cats proving far too threatening).

That those on trial in this instance were rats, was not particularly unusual, for at the time medieval courts were well known to put animals on trial for crimes. What is of note is that it has taken several more centuries before we have revisited the idea of legal representation for animals.

Fast forward to 1993 and The Great Ape Project (GAP) was founded as a group of primatologists, anthropologists, ethicists, and others advocated for a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights on non-human great apes.

One year earlier, Switzerland amended its constitution so that animals were acknowledged as “beings” rather than things. And more recently in Switzerland, a national referendum was held to decide if animals should have the constitutional right to be represented by lawyers in court in cases of animal mistreatment.

In 1999 New Zealand granted basic rights to five great ape species which forbade their use in research, testing or teaching.

On February 28, 2007 the parliament of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain, passed the world’s first legislation that would effectively grant legal personhood rights to all great apes.

In 2002 in German law recognised “that animals, like humans, have the right to be respected by the state and to have their dignity protected”.

While it may be some time for this to bring meaningful changes for animals, the tide is clearly turning as animal law courses are now being offered by more and more universities and lawyers are forming advocacy groups for animals.