June 24, 2022

AALS Animal Law Section Scholarship Circle with Angela Fernandez

Description

Please join the AALS Animal Law Section as we welcome Professor Angela Fernandez of the University of Toronto as our next presenter in our Scholarship Circle. Professor Fernandez will be presenting a draft of her article entitled "Animals as Property, Quasi-Property or Quasi-Person." Professor Fernandez will present her piece for about 20 minutes, followed by audience comments, questions, and discussion. You will receive Professor Fernandez's work-in-progress at the email address you provide when you register.

Professor Fernandez's paper, "Animals as Property, Quasi-Property or Quasi-Person," addresses cutting-edge issues concerning animals' legal status. It is often said that there are only two available legal categories for nonhuman animals, property or person. Faced with this stark choice, judges, legislators, and members of the public will likely place them in the property category. This paper proposes an in between quasi-hood status – quasi-property/quasi-personhood – that can be used to downplay the property-like qualities of nonhuman animals and augment their personhood-like ones. This status can be used for a large number of nonhuman animals, both as individuals and at a species level, as a kind of sliding scale, as human understanding and views of nonhuman animals and what we owe them change over time.

Keynote

Professor Angela Fernandez, University of Toronto