Introduction: Protecting Animals in an Age of Globalization

In this introduction to Protecting Animals Within and Across Borders, readers are introduced to the topic of extraterritorial animal law and given a roadmap for the book. The chapter explains how animals are bred in one country, slaughtered in another, processed in another, then exported, and that highly mobile multinational corporations systematically exploit weaker animal laws to decrease production costs. Evidence is offered to show that states, policymakers, lawyers, and the public all seek to determine whether and how animals can be protected across borders. The chapter describes the arc of subsequent chapters and their interrelation, making the case that these complex problems can only be solved if they are analyzed from multiple perspectives, including trade, public international, and animal law. The final section outlines the author’s methodology to solve the problems the text raises.