Hamburg Forum on Comparative Animal Law - “From Things to Where? Contemporary Animal Law at the Crossroads”

The most significant achievement and legacy of late 20th-century developments in animal law is the so-called legal dereification of animals. In numerous legal systems worldwide, the status of animals as objects (movable property) has been abolished. While this represents a notable moral advance, dereification alone has not resolved the fundamental question of animals' ultimate legal status. They remain positioned between the categories of things and persons. Furthermore, there are ongoing efforts—through judicial rulings and radical legislative reforms—to elevate animals to the status of rights-holding persons. Is such a transformation a realistic, well- considered, and desirable goal for the future evolution of animal law? Or might alternative approaches better address the moral and conceptual complexities underlying legal regulation of animals?