To What Extent Should Non-Human Animals Have Legal Rights?

Recent developments in animal welfare legislation in the UK have further advanced the protection of animal rights in domestic law, from the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 to the more recent Pet Abduction Bill in January 2024, while international developments such as the ‘rights of nature’ doctrine have been used to ascribe legal status to non-living entities such as rivers. Both developments raise an interesting question about the advancement of nonhuman animals’ legal status: to what extent should non-human animals have legal rights? This article explores several elements to determine the potential scope of such rights. First, it finds that the multitude of theories on the subject have prevented socio-legal theorists from reaching an agreement on how animals should be treated in society compared with humans. Second, it determines that prevailing socio-cultural preferences for certain non-human animals contradict scientific findings about sentience and make it difficult to create enforceable animal welfare law. Third, it suggests that the applicability of the rights of nature doctrine to non-human animal rights is limited because inanimate environments like rivers are not conscious, and therefore courts can interpret their purpose however they see fit. Finally, it concludes that the complexity of the issues means that the law should not establish which rights should be granted until the legal community can reach consensus on how animals might benefit from specific rights in a practical sense.