Animal law is an emerging legal field seeking to reform the status of animals within legal systems, from strengthening welfare protections to exploring novel legal concepts such as animal legal personhood.
The legal status of animals as property is one of the fundamental structural obstacles to animal welfare reform. Property cannot have rights, cannot bring legal cases, and has value only relative to its owner. The animal law reform movement seeks to change this by establishing animals as subjects with legal interests that courts can recognise and protect. This does not necessarily require full legal personhood — intermediate categories such as sentient being status, as in France, can strengthen welfare protections without the radical implications of personhood. Legal reform is a long-term strategy but one with potentially enormous consequences for animal welfare at scale.