Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Animal Law Research Guide

Introduction
Legislation and Regulations
Case Law
Books on Animal Law
Specialized Journals
Animal Law Blogs
Special Topics
Other Research Guides and Bibliographies

 

Introduction

Animal law addresses legal issues pertaining to the rights and welfare of animals. It encompasses companion animals, agricultural animals, wildlife, and animals used in research. In addition to traditional treatises and law review articles, legal scholarship on animal law often draws on research from interdisciplinary fields such as animal behavior, psychology, sociology, or criminal justice studies.

This selective research guide highlights key online and print resources on animal law available at the Cleveland-Marshall Law Library. For help using any of these materials or finding additional ones, contact a research librarian.

 

Legislation and Regulations

Codified federal law on agriculture is found in Title 7 of the United States Code. The Code of Federal Regulations publishes regulations on animal law under the following titles:

Four key pieces of federal animal legislation were passed in the 1970s:

In Ohio, Revised Code Title 9 covers agriculture and animals. A few specific chapters to note include Chapter 903 Concentrated Animal Feeding Facilities, Chapter 945 Humane Slaughter of Livestock, and Chapter 959 Offenses Relating to Domestic Animals. Ohio's regulations relating to agriculture and animals can be found in Title 9 of the Ohio Administrative Code.

National and international animal law legislation is readily available online. Several sites have fifty-state surveys of animal cruelty laws, including the ASPCA. Comprehensive animal law collections are available from Animal Law.com and the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center, which also provides information on international animal law. The Digest of Federal Resource Laws from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has a broad listing of wildlife laws.

 

 

Case Law

Several of the major animal law sites track case law, and organize reported cases into useful topics, such as cruelty cases, landlord tenant, humane slaughter or pet damages. Two of the best online sites for animal case law are the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center and Animal Law.com. For cases on animals in agriculture, the National AgLaw Reporter from the National Agricultural Law Center is essential.

When searching for animal law cases in Lexis and Westlaw, try using synonyms in an "or" search to expand your results. For example:

  • (dog or canine) /10 "expert witness"
  • (cat or feline) /20 research

 

 

Books on Animal Law

Below is a sample of some of the books on animal law that you'll find in the C-M Law Library. For interdisciplinary research, you may want to borrow materials from the University Library as well. You can search for materials in both the Law Library and the University Library in Scholar, the online catalog. If you don't find what you're looking for Scholar, your next option is borrowing the materials through either OhioLINK or Interlibrary loan.

  • Dale D. Goble, et al., eds., The Endangered Species Act at Thirty (2006) KF5640 .E482 2006
  • National Anti-Vivisection Society, A New Perspective: Seeking Justice for Animals through the Power of Law (2008) KF390.5 .A5 2008
  • Raj Panjwani, ed., Wildlife Law: A Global Perspective (2008) K3525 .W53 2008
  • Shannon Peterson, Acting for Endangered Species: The Statutory Ark (2002) KF5640 .P48 2002
  • Joan Schaffner and Julie Fershtman, eds., Litigating Animal Law Disputes (2009) KF390.5 .A5 L58 2009
  • Erin E. Williams & Margo DeMello, Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection (2007)
    HV4764 .W55 2007
  • Steven M. Wise, Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals (2000) HV4708 .W57 2000x
 

Specialized Journals

Researchers can find articles on animal law in standard law reviews and in specialized publications. For help searching law reviews generally, try our guide on Finding Articles in Law Reviews - it will lead you to the best full-text databases and indexes. The major specialized journals are listed below. Interdisciplinary journals such as the Journal for Critical Animal Studies or the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, can add a new perspective to your law paper.

  • Animal Law
    Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College. See their yearly Federal and State Legislative Review. Available in Lexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline and in print at K1.N4575 . You can also browse the table of contents.
  • Journal of Animal Law
    Michigan State University, College of Law. Available through HeinOnline (2005-2007).
  • Journal of Animal Law & Ethics
    University of Pennsylvania Law School. Available in Lexis, HeinOnline and in print at K10.O833.
  • Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy
    Available in Environment Complete, Expanded Academic ASAP, and OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center. (See University Library’s database list for first two sources.
  • Journal for Critical Animal Studies
    This journal is available freely online.
  • Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science
    Available electronically through Academic Search Complete and OhioLINK EJC.
 

Animal Law Blogs

Need to find a paper topic? Reading blogs can get you up to speed on what's hot, and can point you in the direction of statutes, bills, regulations, and case law. Blogs often feature commentary from lawyers, advocates, scholars and other experts in the field. Animal law blogs are popping up all over the Web; some of the best are:

  • Animal Law Blog
    A practitioner from Illinois writes this groundbreaking blog - a first for animal law.
  • Animal Blawg
    Animal Blawg has been in operation since October 2008. It is written by two law professors and a law student from Pace Law School.
  • ALDF Blog
    The Animal Legal Defense Fund Blog is a source for commentary and analysis of legislation and and case law nationwide.
 

Special Topics

In addition to following blogs, the New York Times Topics feature is another way to stay up-to-date on specific issues in animal law. Times Topics gathers all the NYT news on a topic, so it acts as both a current awareness tool as well as an archived news source. Times Topics covers hundreds of topics, but here are few of particular interest to animal law researchers:

 

Other Research Guides and Bibliographies

Didn't find what you're looking for in this guide? Try some of these other research guides on animal law on the Web. They focus on statutes, case law, secondary sources, and international aspects of animal law.

What about bibliographies? They may seem old school, but they can save you loads of time researching. Usually compiled by librarians and other research junkies, bibliographies list journal articles, books, and other sources on a specific topic.

  • Bobbi Ann Weaver, “Research in the Peaceable Kingdom: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography on Animal Law From an International Perspective,” 30 International Journal of Legal Information 426 (Winter 2002). Available on Westlaw.

 

AEB
June 2009

Links checked - SA 5/1/2009


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