Highlights & Reflections

Market Revolution: Recognizing Animals’ Intrinsic Values marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of animal law, challenging traditional property-based frameworks and advancing the idea that animals possess inherent worth deserving of legal recognition. Hosted at Lewis & Clark Law School, the conference brought together leading advocates, attorneys, scholars, and students to explore how legal systems can better reflect animals’ intrinsic value across practice areas.

The conference opened on Friday with panels addressing the protection of marine life, legal developments affecting animals and their rescuers during disasters, international advancements in animal law in Australia and Canada, and efforts to prevent the exploitation of primates as pets and for profit. These sessions highlighted both emerging threats to animals and innovative legal responses in domestic and international contexts.

Saturday’s programming focused on enforcement, litigation, and policy strategies aimed at dismantling systemic cruelty. Sessions examined fighting canned hunts and animal fighting, bioethical challenges in animal research and cloning, defending activists’ constitutional rights, and estate planning solutions for companion animals. A featured presentation by Steven M. Wise explored the pursuit of fundamental common law rights for nonhuman animals and the legal pathways for achieving them. Afternoon panels addressed civil and criminal remedies recognizing companion animals’ intrinsic value, legislative efforts on behalf of farmed animals, protections for animals used in entertainment, and the ongoing problems posed by puppy mills. The day concluded with a banquet, auction, scholarship award ceremony, and keynote address by James B. Mason.

Sunday’s sessions emphasized the future of the animal law movement through education and professional development. Panels focused on building and expanding animal law curricula, developing clinics, and supporting faculty and students in law schools nationwide. The conference concluded with a practical workshop on successful animal lawyering, covering career paths, advocacy strategies, and the integration of animal law into legal practice.

Market Revolution: Recognizing Animals’ Intrinsic Values underscored a growing shift in animal law—from viewing animals as commodities toward recognizing their inherent dignity—and helped lay the groundwork for many of the legal advances that followed.