A writ of habeas corpus for Hercules and Leo
The University of Denver is one step closer to unleashing a real Planet of the Apes.
Its law school recently created a professorship devoted to animal rights through a “generous gift” from the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF).
The professorship’s first recipient, the university’s own Justin Marceau, is not only an accomplished attorney, educated at Harvard and first in his class at Boston College.
He’s also trying to get two chimps released from a research facility on the legal theory that they have human rights.
“The ALDF Professorship is the first known position of its kind in the country,” the group said in a press release. “Once relegated to the ‘back seat’ of practice areas, animal rights law has recently experienced a tremendous surge of interest and commitment.”
Marceau has long worked with ALDF, most recently representing the group in a successful Idaho lawsuit challenging the state’s criminal prohibition on undercover documentation of questionable agricultural operations.
A federal judge ruled last week that Idaho’s “ag-gag” law was an unconstitutional violation of equal protection for the free speech of undercover documentarians, NPR reported.
Ag-gag challenges are one of Marceau’s specialties. He served on a panel discussing “legislative and litigation strategies” to fight such laws at an animal law conference last year.
According to Denver weekly Westword, Marceau is serving as an “expert” in a New York lawsuit by the Nonhuman Rights Project, which is arguing that two research chimps, Hercules and Leo, are “autonomous and self-determining beings” being held against their will.
“In granting a writ [of habeas corpus], the court would essentially be saying that chimps are people in the eyes of the law,” Westword said.
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Marceau did not go into detail about the content of his classes in the new professorship, or what fieldwork would be involved, in an email interview with The College Fix.
“The courses will range from a survey of animal law, to one that focuses exclusively on the overlap between US constitutional law and animal law,” Marceau said. He added that he’s teaching a specific practicum about “a variety of civil rights issues with particular focus on animal law.”
The University of Denver law school lists some animal-law courses already. A course on “Animal Rights” explores “the definition of the term animal” and state anti-cruelty laws and various federal laws, and considers “arguments for and against granting animals legal rights.”
“Animals, Food Law and the Constitution” seeks to teach students about the legality of undercover operations and “efforts to elevate ‘right to farm’ to a constitutionally protected status as a means of limiting animal welfare legislation.”
ALDF did not return requests for comment on future plans for professorships.
While there does not appear to be any other professorships specific to animal law, other universities offer similar animal-law courses. According to ALDF, 162 law schools worldwide, mostly in North America, “have offered a course in animal law.”
Lewis & Clark Law School even has a Center for Animal Law Studies, which proclaims that it’s “educating the next generation of animal law attorneys.”
It offers classes on such topics as “Pacific Salmon Law,” “Law of Columbia River” and “Animal Cruelty: The Link to Domestic Violence and Policy.”
RELATED: Professors Push To Consider Animals Equal To Humans
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