Shifting Spatial Dimensions of Animal Law

Abstract

Chapter 2 lays the groundwork for protecting animals in international law by presenting a series of arguments that justify applying domestic animal law across borders. It first describes the most pressing challenges raised by the globalization of animal production and asks if concluding a treaty is the most rational approach to solving them. It provides evidence for the assumption that treaty-making is both unlikely and undesirable, and that extraterritorial jurisdiction offers considerable comparative benefits by creating a dense jurisdictional net of overlapping laws. Chapter 2 then demonstrates in detail that animal law is highly entangled in economic terms (which serves as a justification for extraterritorial jurisdiction in economic law) and subject to a common consensus about the proper treatment of animals (which serves as a justification for extraterritorial jurisdiction in criminal law). Together, these arguments prove that states have a shared interest in protecting animals more effectively across the border.