Why is animal law education important?
Voiceless believes animal law education is a crucial aspect of the animal protection social justice movement. Teaching animal law to law students ensures that the next generation of change makers in law, government and politics have an understanding of the key role law plays in animal protection.
As explained by Dr Joanna Kyriakakis, Animal Law Lecturer at Monash University:
The subject’s embeddedness in law school curricula can have flow-on effects that benefit the broader social movement… providing more law students with the opportunity to study animal law produces future lawyers, legislators, policy makers, and judges attuned to the social conditions of animals and to the role of law in constructing, perpetuating, mediating and changing those conditions.
Our work in animal law education
From 2017-2021, Voiceless ran the Animal Law Education (ALE) program. This multi-faceted educational program for law students and teachers helped to increase knowledge and awareness of animal protection issues in our legal systems. We developed animal law educational materials for use in universities and supported the development of animal law courses across Australia. We also encouraged the professional development of Australia’s animal law educators and delivered animal law presentations at universities across the country and at national and international conferences. To provide opportunities for law students, we also operated a volunteer and internship program and supported student animal law events and initiatives across the country.
We were proud to partner with the Bond University Centre for Professional Legal Education on the development of our Animal Law Education (ALE) resources, to create freely available, up-to-date and professionally developed animal law educational materials for use in universities around the world.
Voiceless animal law resources
Voiceless ALE resources enable animal law teachers to easily run engaging classes on key animal law topics. Access our free and professionally developed resources via the Animal Law homepage.
Resources include:
- The Voiceless Animal Law Toolkit
- Moral and Legal Status of Animals ALE resources
- Animal Law and Policy Reform ALE resources
- Comparative Animal Law Farmed Animals ALE resources
- Animal Law Encyclopedia
- Reports and Briefings
- Animal Law Lecture Series videos
Supporting animal law teachers
Voiceless ran the annual Animal Law Education Workshop (ALE Workshop) from 2018-2021. The Workshop was Australia’s only animal law teacher professional development forum available at the time, and was attended by most of Australia and New Zealand’s animal law lecturers and researchers. The event was an important forum for animal law teachers, providing them with the opportunity to share ideas and learn from the experiences and expertise of their peers.
Animal Law Education Workshop 2020-2021
The 2020 and 2021 ALE Workshop events were held online and co-hosted by Voiceless, the Bond University Centre for Professional Legal Education and the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. In 2020, the Keynote Public Lecture was delivered by Dr Raj Reddy (Center for Animal Law Studies).
Watch the video below to hear Dr Reddy discuss the global rise of animal law education.
Animal Law Education Workshop 2018-19
The 2018 and 2019 ALE Workshops were coordinated by Voiceless with our ALE partner, the Bond University Centre for Professional Legal Education, and generously hosted in Sydney by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers.
ALE Workshop 2019
ALE Workshop 2018
Listen to one of the presentations delivered by University of Otago animal law lecturer Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere below.