AUSTRALIAN LAW JOURNAL REVIEWS
For Abolitionist Online by Claudette Vaughan

Australian Animal Protection Law Journal.

The first issue of the Australian Animal Protection Law Journal was launched earlier this year with much cheering from the law fraternity and animal activists alike.  Voiceless, the Fund for Animals were the proud sponsors enabling John Mancy, lawyer and activist, to produce twice yearly this very useable and important document that calls for contributors and reviewers not necessarily legally qualified yet, having said that, there are plenty of lawyers, barristers and professors lining up waiting to contribute.

"The target audience", John Mancy said over the phone recently, is "anyone interested in animals". "This journal", he said, "is to stimulate lawyers to think about ways to use the law to end all forms of animal suffering and exploitation, especially through intensive farming practices, but also scientific research and cruel forms of "entertainment." What compelled John to produce, edit and write this new law journal was because "most Australian lawyers have not yet considered how the law affects the intellectual challenges involved in practicing as an animal protection lawyer and so creating Animal Law was something he (in his varied roles as animal protection law barrister, legal publisher and veterinary science "drop-out") was most qualified and uniquely placed to do. It is the hope of the editor to provide a legal forum for principled consideration and spirited discussion of all the issues regarding animals in Australia and to build a continuing resource to students of Animal Law.

1. Peter Sankoff, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland has written Australasia's first animal law textbook: Turn up the dialogue. 

Articles in this first issue include:

Why doesn't animal protection legislation protect animals? (And how it's getting worse)  by barrister Ian Weldon.

In a nutshell Ian Weldon has summed it up for most of us when he asks: Is it plausible to have animal legislation in place that's workable, enforceable and just, from the victims point of view?

Is the problem simply one of enforcement? Ian Weldon identifies the lack of political will as being the culprit to much that is wrong with animal welfare laws in Australia today. He goes on to write about the Al Kuwait and its aftermath signaling the first of many shake-ups in the Australian live export industry.

2. Dr Siobhan O'Sullivan's contribution Transparency in Australian animal research regulation – How are we doing? Is already onthe Abolitionist-Online's site.

3. Animal cruelty law and intensive animal farming in South Australia – light at the end of the tunnel?

Written by Malcolm Caulfield,  legal counsel for the group Animals Australia, Caulfield makes a compelling case that the RSPCA should not be involved in enforcement of animal cruelty law, and that the intensive farming industry should be subject of considerable scrutiny regarding its treatment of animals in so-called 'factory farms'. . He sites the Wasleys piggery case that Animal Liberation NSW took on board and where the RSPCA asserted, Caulfield tells us, that because the relevant code "suggested minimum space allowances…" for sows in stalls, use of stalls smaller than the dimensions in the code would not constitute breach of the relevant regulations…It makes for great reading!

4.  Putting the Chicken before the egg; layer hen housing laws in Australia

Katrina Sharman is the Corporate Counsel for Voiceless, the Fund for Animals, a non-profit organisation established by Brian Sherman AM and Ondine Sherman to protect animals in Australia (www.voiceless.org.au) As an aside it's worth mentioning that Voiceless now has two full time paid up lawyers on their staff working for animals full time – an Australian first! Katrina is one such person. Here she writes on the legislative framework for layer hen welfare and provides graphic descriptions of an egg-laying chickens life entrenched by the presence of the Federal Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals; Domestic Poultry, a document endorsed by Federal, State and Territory Primary Industries Ministers which, she tells us, "underpins the primary animal welfare law to different degrees in each jurisdiction…".

5. Suffering under the law:  could 'human' rights be used to protect the basic interests of all animals? By Tara Ward.

Tara Ward is a lecturer in Animal Law at the University of New South Wales. She has written extensively on possible mechanisms for better protecting animals' interests.

To make further enquiries:  Email John Mancy, Editor,  mancyj@gmail.com
Snail mail to:  PO Box 552, Beecroft, NSW 2119, Australia

REFORM – A Journal of National and International Law Reform Summer 2007/08 Issue 91

Since it's inception, approximately 21 years ago, this is the first time the Australian Law Reform Commission has dedicated a whole issue to the subject of animals and its our view they have done an excellent job with their choice of contributors starting with Comment by David Weisbrot, president of the Australian Law Review Commission.

1. Professor John M. Coetzee the South African novelist, critic and translator was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003 and is patron of Voiceless, the Fund for Animals writes On The Right to Life.

2. Professor Steven M. Wise, the internationally acclaimed animal protection advocate, author and lecturer on law writes an article called The basic rights of some non-human animals under the common law.

3. Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and specializes in theories of politics and culture has written an article Charlie, the Tuna, and other 'suicide food fallacies.

4. Tom Regan the American philosopher and animal rights activist and writer, always a great speaker on defending animal rights has written, What we learn from Alice.

5. Geoffrey Bloom is Principle of Geoffrey Bloom & Associates, a specialist practice providing legal and policy services to the health industry. He has taught Animal Law at the University of NSW and Southern Cross University has written a piece entitled Everyone is in favour of Animal Welfare.

6. Legal counsel for the group Animals Australia contributes The Law and Pig Farming.

7. Kathleen Plowman, Alan Pearson and John Topfer contribution is entitled Animals and the law in Australia: a livestock industry perspective. Kathleen Plowman is the General Manager Policy for Australian Pork Limited.

Alan Pearson is an experienced company director, entrepreneur and business strategist, specializing in knowledge-based industries. John Topfer is a partner in the Canberra office of Mallesons Stephen Jaques where he practices in the areas of commercial disputes, professional indemnity liability and administrative law.

8. The Challenge Posed by Feral Animals is written by Graeme McEwen. He is Chair of the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel, a Bar Association of the Victorian Bar which addresses a National agenda.

9. Ethical Perspectives in Animal Biotechnology by Mickey Gjerris and Peter Sandoe.  Mickey Gjerris is Associate Professor at the Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment at the University of Copenhagan.  Peter Sandee is professor at the Centre of Bioethics and Risk Assessment at the University of Copenhagen.

10. Lifting the Veil of Secrecy on Animal-derived Food Products by Katrina Sharman.

Katrina Sharman is Corporate Counsel for Voiceless, the fund for animals.

11. Is Common Law the Key to Upholding an Animal's Right Not to Suffer? By Nichola Donovan. Nichola Donovan is the Secretary for Lawyers for Animals.

12. Animals, Guardianship and the Local Courts: towards a practical mode for advocacy. By Ruth Pollard. Ruth Polland is the Principle Legal Officer at the Public Trustee NSW and in the year of its commencement undertook Australia's first Animal Law course at the University of New South Wales in February 2005.

13. The Emergence of Animal Law in Australian Universities by Steven White. Steven White teaches law at Griffith Law School and is completing a PhD on the regulation of animal welfare.

14.Achieving National Consistency in Privacy Regulation By Jonathan Dobinson who is Senior Legal Officer at the Australian Law Review Commission.

15. Rebuttable Presumption the Way Forward for Legal Professional Privilege?

By Tom Smyth and Christian Strauch, both winners of the Australian Law Reform Commission's 2007 Kirby Cup Competition.

Contact: The Australian Law Reform Commission
Level 25, 135 King Street, Sydney
Tel: 02 8238 6333
Email: info@alrc.gov.au
Net Address: www.alrc.gov.au