First animal law workshop

The southern hemisphere's first workshop dedicated to animal law was held in Brisbane recently, voicing a key theme that lawyers need to play an active role in stirring positive reform.

Lawyers, academics and students from across Australia and New Zealand attended the workshop, Animal Law in Australasia: a New Dialogue, organised by Griffith University law lecturer Steven White and University of Auckland senior law lecturer Peter Sankoff.

The event was sponsored through a grant from Voiceless, the fund for animals.

Mr Sankoff said one of the key messages which kept emerging throughout the workshop was the need for lawyers to stir positive reform.

"This can be done by focusing on two objectives. The first is deciphering the legal framework that governs human-animal relations, and where necessary, explaining how the law is failing to protect animal interests," Mr Sankoff said.

"The second objective is bringing legal challenges in court - not so much to revolutionise the status quo but as a means of spurring societal debate on important animal issues."

Mr White said the discussion of animal law was rapidly becoming part of the mainstream - as seen with issues like battery hen cages and live sheep export.

"As humans begin to exhibit greater concern for the treatment of animals, the law is responding, and issues surrounding their treatment are becoming more complex," Mr White said.

Over the past 25 years the development of animal law has progressed dramatically. It was once regarded as a fringe topic but has now carved out a substantial niche, with more than 100 courses on animal law taught worldwide.

In the past five years alone, ten courses on animal law have emerged at Australian and New Zealand universities, with Griffith being the first and only Queensland university to offer an animal law course. Five separate legal advocacy groups have also started in that time.