Attorneys, law students, and law professors from across the country will come together at Yale Law School on November 5-7 for "The Future of Animal Law," a conference exploring how U.S. law is evolving to reflect Americans' changing attitudes about animals. The conference is sponsored by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and organized with the assistance of Yale's Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (SALDF) chapter.
A full conference schedule can be found online at www.animallawconference.com.
"Animal law is a vibrant emerging field," says Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh. "Yale Law School is pleased to host this conference along with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. As increasing attention is focused on the growing body of laws surrounding animal rights, practitioners and scholars will welcome this opportunity to discuss cutting-edge legal issues with the foremost experts in this field."
Topics to be covered in the conference's keynote addresses and panel discussions include animals and trust law, judicial recognition of animals' inherent interests, non-economic damages (i.e., pain and suffering) in lawsuits related to killed or injured companion animals.
Among the animal law and animal protection experts who are scheduled to take part in the conference are Joyce Tischler, ALDF Executive Director; YLS Dean Koh; Steven M. Wise, author of Rattling the Cage and Drawing the Line; Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States; Paul Leonard, director of the Center for Animal Law & Advocacy and former lieutenant governor of Ohio; David Wolfson, adjunct professor of law at Harvard Law School; David Favre, professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law; and Josh Marquis, district attorney of Clatsop County, Ore. In addition, ALDF will present two studies on animal law topics at the conference: one exploring the impact of felony animal cruelty laws and another offering a broad overview of state animal laws across the country.