Abstract
We should focus on human legal accountability for responsible treatment of nonhuman animals rather than radically restructuring our legal system to make them legal persons. This essay, provided at the kind invitation of the Pace Environmental Law Review (PELR) and Steven Wise, President of the Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc., outlines a number of concerns about animal legal personhood. It does so primarily in the context of the plaintiff’s brief in The Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. v. Lavery, filed in the New York Supreme Court, New York County. The first Lavery lawsuit (Lavery I) was filed in Fulton County in late 2013. After Lavery I was dismissed at the trial court and appellate levels, the second Lavery lawsuit (Lavery II) was filed in New York County in late 2015. The Pace Environmental Law Review is publishing a memorandum of law by Steve Wise and Elizabeth Stein in support of the petition for habeas corpus in Lavery II along with an amicus brief by Professor Laurence Tribe supporting the appeal of Lavery I and this essay opposing the lawsuit. The briefs will be published in a future issue of PELR.
Recommended Citation
Richard L. Cupp Jr., Focusing on Human Responsibility Rather than Legal Personhood for Nonhuman Animals, 33 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 517 (2016)DOI: https://doi.org/10.58948/0738-6206.1797
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol33/iss3/5