In February 2021, seeking to address a critical gap in the current framework of international agreements, the American Bar Association (ABA) called for a Convention on Animal Protection to protect public health, the environment, and animal well-being (more here). Building on the ABA resolution, a group of international lawyers and law professors are working to make the treaty a reality and to establish international safeguards and standards for our interactions with animals. Join LEAP for a panel with the members of the ABA International Animal Law Committee who obtained the passage of the ABA resolution on the proposed draft treaty, including the treaty’s potential to prevent pathogenic spillover and future pandemics. Learn more about the treaty at https://www.conventiononanimalprotection.org/.
Nigel Blackaby QC is a partner at the international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Washington, D.C. where he is the global co-head of Freshfields’ international arbitration practice group as well as its Latin America practice group. Nigel has acted as counsel and arbitrator in over 100 ad hoc and institutional arbitrations conducted in English and Spanish, including over 30 investment arbitrations.
David Favre is a professor of law at Michigan State University College. He served as Dean of the College for five years and continues to teach in the area of property law, animal law, and international environmental law. Professor Favre has written a number of articles and books dealing with animal issues including such topics as animal cruelty, wildlife law, animal rights, ethics of animal use, and international control of animal trade.
Rajesh K. Reddy directs the Global Animal Law and Animal Law Advanced Degree Programs at the Center for Animal Law Studies at Lewis & Clark Law School. He chairs the International Subcommittee of the Animal Law Section of the American Bar Association and serves as a board member for Minding Animals International. He has advanced human and nonhuman animal interests as part of his work for the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Human Rights Law Network in New Delhi, India.
Joan Schaffner is a professor of law at George Washington Law School, where ze directs the GW Law Animal Welfare Pro Bono Project. Ze has presented on animal law panels and conferences world-wide and is the author of the book Introduction to Animals and the Law and of several book chapters, including “Valuing Nature in Environmental Law: Lessons for Animal Law and the Valuation of Animals” in What Can Animal Law Learn from Environmental Law? and “Value, wild animals and law” in Animal Welfare and International Environmental Law: From Conservation to Compassion