Yale Law School
"As we debate endlessly in the USA whether a chimpanzee can have its day in court, or if non-human animals can ever have standing to sue for their rights… In Latin America judges are granting zoo animals personhood, and legislatures are enacting Constitutional rights for animals and nature. What drives these differences? I seek to understand the developing disparities between the rights of nature expanding in Latin America and the continuing resistance animal advocates face in United States courts. Indigenous and non-western values often inspire these new laws, so what values undergird the resistance to these rights in the USA?"