Legal Personhood: Lesson 1 Civics and Citizenship, Yr 7

A Person by Any Other Name? Legal Personhood and Animals 

The learning sequence for this activity addresses the question of where other species and entities (such as non-human animals and rivers) ‘fit’ within Australia’s legal system. It begins by examining terms and concepts related to this topic as a result of watching a video exploring the application of legal personhood to non-human animals. Students go on to discuss the ideas in the video before attempting to apply them to their own lives.

Time Allocation 

1 lesson.

Voiceless Resources

Key Inquiry Questions 

  • How are legal terms used to describe an individual’s rights to justice in Australia’s system of law?
  • What principles of justice help to protect human individuals?
  • In what ways does the law protect humans over other species, such as chimpanzees?

Suggested Learning Activities

1. PRE-TEST 

ACTIVITY 1: Vocabulary check 

Explain the class will be exploring the idea of who and what are considered ‘persons’ under Australian Law.

Before watching the Voiceless video Animals: Property or Persons? introduce students to the following terms:

  1. Autonomous
  2. Captivity
  3. Chimpanzee
  4. Discrimination
  5. Corporation
  6. Habeas corpus
  7. Law
  8. Legal Obligation
  9. Legal Person
  10. Legal Right
  11. Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP)
  12. Property
  13. Self-awareness
  14. Speciesism

 

Definitions for the terms can be found here.

List the vocabulary terms on the board and ask students if they can contribute any definitions.

2. EXPLORE 

As a class, watch the Voiceless video Animals: Property or Persons?

3. DISCUSS

After viewing the video, ask the students to complete the Legal Personhood APE Vocabulary Quizlet for this task.

4. SHARE

Ask students to share their experiences with the Quizlet. What terms are they still uncertain about? Have they learnt anything surprising?

5. REFLECT

Ask students to complete the following task: ‘Write a 100-word response to watching the Voiceless video Animals: Property or Persons? How do you feel about what you learned and what main point(s) did you take away from it?’

 

To help us improve our materials, we would appreciate any work, feedback or thoughts you would like to share: education@voiceless.org.au  

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Australian Curriculum alignment

Learning Area: Civics and Citizenship
Year Level: Year 7
General Capabilities:

  • Literacy
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Ethical Understanding
  • Personal and Social Capability
Strands:

Civics and Citizenship Knowledge and Understanding – Laws and Citizens

Civics and Citizenship Skills – Questioning and Research / Problem-solving and Decision-making / Communication and Reflection
Content Descriptions: 

Laws and citizens 

  • How Australia’s legal system aims to provide justice, including through the rule of law, presumption of innocence, burden of proof, right to a fair trial and right to legal representation (ACHCK050)

Questioning and research  

  • Identify, gather and sort information and ideas from a range of sources (ACHCS055)

Problem-solving and decision-making 

  • Appreciate multiple perspectives and use strategies to mediate differences (ACHCS057)

Communication and reflection 

  • Reflect on their role as a citizen in Australia’s democracy (ACHCS06)
Elaborations: 

(ACHCK050)

  • Discussing the meaning and importance of the rule of law

(ACHCS055)

  • Categorising information under headings that are the focus for research

(ACHCS057)

  • Identifying the influences or circumstances that may have informed different perspectives about a civics and citizenship issue

 (ACHCS060)

  • Recognising their own emotional reactions when interacting with people who are different from them
  • Raising awareness of different perspectives (for example, about sustainability challenges)
Cross-Curricular Priority:

Sustainability

World Views 
OI.5 – World views are formed by experiences at personal, local, national and global levels, and are linked to individual and community actions for sustainability.
Acknowledgments 
This Australian Curriculum alignment statement is based on the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) materials, which are licensed under CC BY 4.0. The material has been modified from the Australian Curriculum website (accessed April 2018).

All activities have been created by educators for educators and are linked to the Australian Curriculum (Version 8.4). We advise teachers to consult the ACARA website for the most up-to-date curriculum outcomes.

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