Animal Law : Cases and Materials

This is the second updated edition of the premier book on animal law, a rapidly developing field that is increasing its presence in the public eye. Animal law is, in its simplest (and broadcast) sense, a combination of statutory and decisional law in which nature - legal, social, or biological - of non-human animals is an important factor. This book is a valuable resource for courses in animal law, as an adjunct to environmental or wildlife law courses, and as a reference book for attorneys whose practices may bring them in contact with the relevant issues. It brings together a cohesive format, which touches on most areas in which animals affect legal doctrines, case law, and legislative direction. Because this is not a traditional legal field, most of the book's chapters are framed in terms of familiar subsets of the law - such as tort, contract, criminal, and constitutional law. Each chapter sets out cases and commentary where animal law affects those broader areas. In the second edition, the text has been updated and several chapters reorganized and revised to provide even greater clarity of direction and organization for the reader. As in the first edition, animal law as presented in this book is not synonymous with "animal rights" or with any particular political, moral or ethical agenda. Rather, it is an objective and logical specialization of a challenging area - one with a growing number of cases and statutes, increasing public and practical interest, and significantly different historical, legal and philosophical foundations than most other areas of law.