Past Lives and Future Hopes: A vision to end animal suffering
Special guest speaker of the 2010 Animal Law Lecture Series was leading US animal lawyer, co-founder and General Counsel for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Joyce Tischler. Joyce shared her experience of the birth of the animal law movement thirty years ago in San Francisco and how six attorneys set in motion a revolution that has touched the lives of billions of animals worldwide.
Combining her life-long affinity for animals with her legal skills, Joyce has been instrumental in developing, nurturing and growing the animal law movement in the US and around the world. In 2009, Ms Tischler was recognised by The American Bar Association’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section Animal Law Committee with an Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award. Widely regarded as the ‘mother of the animal law movement’, Joyce gave an inspiring talk about what has been learned in the continuing US effort to protect animals through the law, how that shapes the current focus and how the American experience applies to the development of animal law in Australia.
Read a transcript of Joyce Tichler’s presentation.
An Australian context was provided by local speakers: David Crocker, Dr. Maike Dorn, Joana Fuller, Tracy-Lynne Geysen, Anthony Karsteadt, Graeme McEwen, Graeme Page SC, Dr Melissa Perry QC,, Katrina Sharman, Ian Weldon and Steven White.
At the Keynote Address, Animal Law in Australia and New Zealand, by Deborah Cao et al was launched by the Governor of NSW, Her Excellency, Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO. The book aims to further establish animal law as an independent branch of legal study in these countries.
Watch the 2010 Voiceless Animal Law Lecture Series keynote presentation.
Watch Professor Bashir’s speech.