What Is Animal Law?
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Cleveland State Law Review Volume 61 Issue 4 Article 4 2013 What is Animal Law? Jerrold Tannenbaum School of Law, University of California at Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev Part of the Animal Law Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Recommended Citation Jerrold Tannenbaum, What is Animal Law?, 61 Clev. St. L. Rev. 891 (2013) available at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev/vol61/iss4/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cleveland State Law Review by an authorized editor of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHAT IS ANIMAL LAW? JERROLD TANNENBAUM* ABSTRACT This Article considers a critically important issue facing the new field of animal law: how to define animal law itself. Two sharply different general approaches to defining the area currently vie for support. One defines animal law as committed to advocacy on behalf of animals, including, for many proponents of this approach, promotion of animal rights. The competing approach defines animal law in a purely descriptive manner, as (roughly) the area of law that relates to animals, whatever substantive principles regarding animals the law may adopt. The Article demonstrates that advocacy-oriented definitions violate fundamental standards of definition and conflict with crucial aims and values of our legal system. The discussion argues in favor of descriptive definition of animal law, but explains why such a definition may be difficult to formulate. The Article maintains that a necessary first step in finding a satisfactory definition— and in motivating lawyers, law school faculty, and law students to pay sufficient attention to animal-related legal issues—is rejection of advocacy-oriented definitions of animal law. I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 894 II. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS .......................................... 895 A. Infrequency of Formal Definitions of Animal Law ...... 895 B. Agreement about the Meaning of the Term “Animal” 896 III. ADVOCACY-ORIENTED DEFINITION OF ANIMAL LAW ......... 896 A. Rights-Centered Advocacy Definition ......................... 896 1. Representative Examples ..................................... 896 2. Definitional Elements and Compatible Claims .... 901 B. Reformist Advocacy Definition .................................... 902 IV. EMERGENCE AND EARLY DOMINANCE OF RIGHTS-CENTERED DEFINITION ...................................................................................... 906 A. Necessary Conditions of an Area of Animal Law: Content, Connections, and Interest ............................................................... 906 B. The Long History of Law Relating to Animals ............ 907 * Professor of Veterinary and Animal Ethics and Law, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Visiting Professor, School of Law, University of California at Davis (King Hall). J.D., Harvard Law School; B.A. and M.A. (Philosophy), Cornell University. I would like to thank Zachary Colbeth, King Hall Class of 2013, for invaluable research and editorial assistance. I am deeply grateful to the King Hall students who have taken my animal law course since 2003, from whom I have learned so much, and without whom the article could not have been written. By their large numbers, diverse perspectives, and enthusiastic interest in all points of view, they have confirmed the wisdom of attempting to define animal law in the manner urged in the article. 891 Published by EngagedScholarship@CSU, 2013 1 892 CLEVELAND STATE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 61:891 C. Connections among Legal Principles Relating to Animals ..................................................................................... 908 D. Interest of Animal Advocates in Recognizing “Animal Law” ..................................................................................... 908 E. Animal Rights Theory as a Motivating and Unifying Factor ..................................................................................... 910 F. Adoption of Rights-Centered Definition by Observers and Opponents of the Animal Rights Movement .................................... 912 V. EMERGENCE OF DESCRIPTIVE DEFINITIONS OF “ANIMAL LAW” 914 VI. SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF DEFINITION ........................ 917 A. Components and Nature of Definitions ....................... 917 B. Definition versus Factual Descriptions or Ethical Conclusions ..................................................................................... 919 C. Limited Role of Definitions .......................................... 919 D. Purposes of Definitions ............................................... 920 1. Interrelation of Definitional Purpose and Content 920 2. Lexical and Stipulative Definitions ...................... 920 E. Analytic Definition and its Limitations ........................ 921 F. Impossibility of Defining Some Words ........................ 923 VII. APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES OF DEFINITION BY DEFINITIONS OF AREAS OF LAW ................................................................................ 924 A. The Definitions of Most Areas of Law Include or Imply Very Little about These Areas’ Current Basic Concepts, Causes of Action, and Substantive Principles ................................................. 924 B. The Definitions of Areas of Law Typically Include or Imply Very Little about What Substantive Principles These Areas Ought to Endorse ............................................................................ 926 C. The Definitions of Areas of Law Typically Include or Imply Very Little About the Underlying Fundamental Goals and Structure of These Areas ................................................................. 927 D. Some Areas of Law Are Not Susceptible to Analytic Definition ..................................................................................... 928 E. Not Every Area of Law May be Capable of Definition 929 VIII. FOLLOWING STANDARDS OF GOOD DEFINITION FURTHERS CENTRAL AIMS AND VALUES OF SPECIFIC AREAS OF LAW AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM IN GENERAL ........................................................... 930 A. Flexibility, Adaptability, and Ability to Change .......... 930 B. Openness to Empirical and Normative Argument and Competing Theories of Law ............................................................ 931 https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev/vol61/iss4/4 2 2013] WHAT IS ANIMAL LAW? 893 C. Application of Principles Involving Multiple Areas of Law ..................................................................................... 931 D. Commitment to the Adversarial Process ..................... 931 1. Most Definitions of Areas of Law Do Not Target Particular Parties for Protection ...................................................... 931 2. Definitions of Areas of Law That Do Target Kinds of Parties for Protection Do Not Impede the Ability of Opposing Attorneys to Argue on Behalf of Their Clients ............................... 932 IX. WHY ADVOCACY DEFINITIONS OF ANIMAL LAW SHOULD BE REJECTED ........................................................................................ 933 A. Rights-Centered Advocacy Definition Does Not Define an Area of Law ..................................................................................... 934 B. Rights-Centered Definition Will Likely Never Define an Area of Law ..................................................................................... 934 C. Rights-Centered Definition Would Exclude Many Animals from the Purview of Animal Law .................................................... 935 D. Rights-Centered Definition Violates Principles of Good Definition ..................................................................................... 936 1. Endorsement of Empirical and Normative Propositions and Substantive Legal Principles ............................... 936 2. Impeding Professional Development of Lawyers and Effective Representation of Clients ................................................ 938 3. Reducing Potential Enrollments in Animal Law Courses and Attention to Animal Law by Law School Faculty ..... 938 E. Identical Flaws of Reformist Advocacy Definition ...... 942 X. VIRTUES AND CHALLENGES OF DESCRIPTIVE DEFINITION OF ANIMAL LAW ................................................................................... 943 A. Apparent Advantages of Descriptive Definition .......... 943 B. Potential Impediments to Formulating a Satisfactory Descriptive Definition ..................................................................... 944 1. An Analytic Definition Is Not Required .............. 944 2. Existence of a Distinct Area of Law Capable of Definition Is Required .................................................................... 944 C. The Tasks Ahead .......................................................... 950 1. Attempting to Find a Satisfactory Descriptive Definition .............................................................................. 950 2. Dealing with the Possibility That a Descriptive Definition Is Unachievable ............................................................. 950 XI. CONCLUSION: A NECESSARY FIRST STEP ............................ 951 TABLE: SOME ANIMAL-RELATED LEGAL SCENARIOS ...................... 953 Published by EngagedScholarship@CSU, 2013 3 894 CLEVELAND STATE LAW REVIEW [Vol.