View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Michigan School of Law University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Volume 51 2018 Beyond Rights and Welfare: Democracy, Dialogue, and the Animal Welfare Act Jessica Eisen Harvard Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr Part of the Animal Law Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, and the Science and Technology Law Commons Recommended Citation Jessica Eisen, Beyond Rights and Welfare: Democracy, Dialogue, and the Animal Welfare Act, 51 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 469 (2018). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol51/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. BEYOND RIGHTS AND WELFARE: DEMOCRACY, DIALOGUE, AND THE ANIMAL WELFARE ACT Jessica Eisen* ABSTRACT The primary frameworks through which scholars have conceptualized legal pro- tections for animals—animal “rights” and animal “welfare”—do not account for socio-legal transformation or democratic dialogue as central dynamics of animal law. The animal “rights” approach focuses on the need for limits or boundaries preventing animal use, while the animal “welfare” approach advocates balancing harm to animals against human benefits from animal use. Both approaches rely on abstract accounts of the characteristics animals are thought to share with humans and the legal protections they are owed as a result of those traits.