Reimagining Animal Law
Sam Hazle
Adopting an intersectional and posthumanist approach that facilitates nonhuman animal flourishing and mitigates human social justice issues.
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Researcher
Project Supervisors
Background
This socio-legal research project critiques the traditional approach of animal law and advocacy and explores the potential for alternative approaches grounded in an intersectional and posthumanist framework inspired by critical animal studies. This project utilises this framework to perform a novel empirically driven investigation into the approaches of civil society organisations working with animal law and policy, specifically those organisations in the United Kingdom. Through this investigation new insights into organisations will be produced and the potential for an intersectional and posthumanist framework to help organisations to progress more effectively towards animal liberation will be uncovered.
Aims/Objectives
This project seeks to answer the question: to what extent can introducing an intersectional and posthumanist framework for animal law and policy civil society organisations help them progress more effectively towards animal liberation. Animal liberation meaning the freeing of animals from all forms of exploitation and recognising their entitlement to flourish as living beings. This project draws on the framework of Critical Animal Studies to provide a critical, intersectional, and posthumanist analysis of developments in animal law and advocacy. This project provides three novel contributions to the field of animal law scholarship. First, this project constructs an ‘operational test and toolkit’ based on Critical Animal Studies to examine the practices of animal law and policy civil society organisations in the UK. This provides, for the first time, an examination of the practices of these UK-based CSOs in this way, as well as a model to examine similar CSOs in other jurisdictions. Second, this project provides a codification of research on the process of social change, drawing on knowledge collected in relation to human social justice movements, and novelly examines how the law can be used most effectively for animal liberation progress. Third, this project provides a handbook for UK-based animal law and policy CSOs to use as a framework to reform their practices in a way that greater aligns with posthumanism and intersectionality, as well as lessons for animal law and policy organisations in other jurisdictions.
Methods
This research project utilises socio-legal desk-based and empirical research methods. The use and construction of these research methods is guided by a posthumanist and theoretical framework inspired by critical animal studies, to critique the traditional approach of animal law and advocacy as well as to explore alternatives. More specifically, this project utilises four research methods to investigate its questions. These methods are surveys, interviews, documentary analysis, and data analysis.
Outcomes
Presentations
Reimagining Animal Law: Posthumanist and Intersectional Visions for Reform’ (UK Animal Law Conference Workshop, June 2025)
‘Utopian Animal Law, Civil Society, and Social Change’ (3rd Annual Comparative Animal Law Postgraduate Workshop, May 2025)
Reimagining Animal Law: Posthumanist and Intersectional Visions for Reform’ (Helsinki Animal Law Conference, August 2024)
‘Reimagining Animal Law: Posthumanist and Intersectional Visions for Reform’ (UK Animal Law Conference, May 2024)
‘Reimagining Animal Law: Posthumanist and Intersectional Visions for Reform’ (WMLDN Annual Conference - Research Showcase, March 2024)
Get Involved
This research project is in its data collection phase. If you would like to learn more about the project and its outcomes, please contact Sam Hazle.