Animal Rights and Animal Liberation

The academic study of animal rights and animal liberation is rapidly gaining traction. Writings on animal rights are no longer confined to the disciplines of philosophy and ethics, but are increasingly regarded as belonging to an independent subdiscipline of law, often referred to in short as “animal law” or “animal rights law.” This newly emerging discipline is sometimes described as “zoocentric,” taking a nonanthropocentric perspective to legal theory and legal practice; it’s multidisciplinary, in the sense that it covers various fields of law and includes insights from other disciplines; and it’s critical, questioning the long-standing assumptions of philosophy, law, and legal theory. Traditionally the main questions within animal rights theory had to do with the moral and legal status of animals as either persons or things. Moving away from this focus, the discussion has, since “the political turn,” shifted toward the broader question of how to organize our societies in such a way that more respectful relationships between humans and other animals can take shape, and new concepts such as ‘sentience’ and ‘dignity’ have been introduced. It is during this latter phase that the nexus between animal rights and agricultural production, in particular, has become the subject of academic inquiry, bringing animal rights under the umbrella of food studies. This guide to sources focuses on the main contributions to animal rights literature, including philosophy and ethics, while paying specific attention to the growing body of literature addressing animal rights in the context of society, and the relation with food production in particular.