Comparative Vantage Points of Extraterritorial Animal Law

Abstract

Chapter 9 provides legislators with a full description of the comparative advantages of applying animal law across the border. It first clarifies the scope of extraterritorial jurisdiction by examining what kinds of administrative, criminal, and civil animal laws can be used extraterritorially. Using a functional comparative approach, the author describes the benefits of extraterritorial applying animal law extraterritorially, including constitutionally enshrined state objectives, rights and prohibitions, and duties of compassion. Criminal animal law (including advanced rules on corporate liability) and administrative animal law (including advanced standards on keeping, transporting, and slaughter) can also create significant advantages for animals when used to protect them across borders. The author describes these in detail and concludes that there are good reasons to believe that only a few of the existing animal laws can operate as exemplary models. For animal law to yield substantial benefits in extraterritorial application, it first must emancipate itself from the dominant animal use paradigm.