Executive Summary
As we celebrate our sixth anniversary, the Animal Law & Policy Program (ALPP) at Harvard Law School (HLS) is proud to share the work we have done to benefit the lives of animals farmed for food, animals used in biomedical research, animals affected by climate change, and those suffering a multitude of other harms. We also have continued our efforts to benefit animals by addressing the regulation of plant-based and cell-based alternatives to animal products and working to achieve justice for families affected by noxious factory farms being built beside their homes.
The interconnected dimensions of injustice have never felt more present, and highlight that we cannot simply pull out one strand and work on it in isolation without an awareness of how others might be impacted. This past fall and spring, the work of the Program, the Clinic, and our faculty, staff, and Visiting Fellows has reflected our commitment to these principles. Such work includes Visiting Fellow Amy Fitzgerald’s focus on animals in Intimate Partner Violence, Executive Director Chris Green’s efforts to reduce the number of dogs killed by police, and Clinical Instructor Nicole Negowetti’s advocacy for just food systems.
Other contributions include Visiting Professor Justin Marceau’s research rethinking criminal punishment in animal law, Clinic Director Katherine Meyer’s supervision of the Clinic’s challenging the environmental impacts of the proposed border wall, and Faculty Director Kristen Stilt’s work at the intersection of animal protection and religion. The Program itself also recently launched a collaborative international research project with a team of institutional partners to examine the global regulation of live animal markets and their role in the spread of zoonotic disease.
In these times, such work and collaboration, at home and around the world, are more important than ever. When the pandemic caused us to shift our work to a remote format in March 2020, we rapidly adapted to the virtual realities and reached even broader and more diverse audiences. This report highlights the work of the past year, showing our substantial impact through our extensive activities, scholarship, and policy work.
Flip through the pages of our Year in Review below:
Past Reviews2018-2019 Year in Review
As we complete our fifth year, the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program has broadened its existing focus on the welfare of animals raised for food to include the regulation of plant-based and cell-based alternatives to animal products, along with federal legislation that could have rolled back scores of state farmed animal welfare laws.