Animal Law Podcast #80: Teaching Animal Rights

Welcome to the Animal Law Podcast. This is Mariann Sullivan, and this week we will be doing something a little bit different. Sherry Colb is a professor at Cornell Law School where, among many other things, she teaches an animal centric course that, to my knowledge, is quite different from most of the courses relating to animals taught at law schools. Unlike the course that I teach, which is all about the all-too-fragile law purporting to protect animals, she focuses on the reasons people should attend to animals and, specifically, the reasons they shouldn’t be eating them, or using them for other purposes. Since I had never run across a course quite like this in any law school, I invited Sherry to come on and talk about it, in the hopes that other law schools might adopt this approach, in addition to the more traditional animal law courses. After our conversation, I was so glad I did and I think you will feel the same way.

Sherry F. Colb earned an A.B. from Columbia College (Valedictorian) and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Before joining the Rutgers University faculty, she clerked for Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. She is currently the C.S. Wong Professor of Law at Cornell University. She has co-authored a book about the connection between animal rights and zygote rights, Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights, and a book about animal rights, Mind If I Order the Cheeseburger? And Other Questions People Ask Vegans. She composes a bi-weekly column on Justia’s Verdict as well as regular posts on the blog, Dorf on Law.

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The Animal Law Podcast is proud to partner with The Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy, Inc., a US-based national independent think tank pursuing a paradigm shift in human responsibility towards, and value of, non-human animals by advancing animal law, animal policy, and related interdisciplinary studies.

As the Animal Law Podcast 2021 Exclusive Sponsor, the The Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy, Inc is dedicated to producing and disseminating outstanding, independent, academic, and public policy research and programming; and pursuing projects and initiatives focused on advancing law and policy pertaining to animals.

The Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy is excited to share a new FREE resource:  The Brooks Animal Law Digest – CANADA EDITION! This premier online publication offers in-depth and up-to-date coverage on Canada’s most important animal law and policy issues. It is published twice monthly as a collaborative effort with the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s research support.

Like the Brooks Animal Law Digest – US Edition, the Canadian Digest serves as a resource for anyone interested in learning more about the field of animal law – either as a high-level overview of developments, or as a jumping off point for digging into a specific current issue in the field. All content will be accessible on the Brooks Institute website and spotlights via email twice monthly.

Click here to subscribe to the free Brooks Animal Law Digest – CANADA EDITION.

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