Last night in Sydney, former High Court Judge, Michael Kirby formally launched the book “Animal Law in Australasia,” giving a 20 minute long speech to a crowd of around 250 people at the University of Sydney.
It was certainly no surprise to hear an eloquent and insightful speech from Michael Kirby, who had to retire from the High Court due to the age limit but is still extremely active in many other areas.
It is a significant indication of the growing importance of the fast developing area of animal law that a person with such an impeccable legal record and reputation should not only agree to launch such a book, but do so with an impassioned speech about the need to increase awareness of the great suffering inflicted on so many animals and to develop more effective ways to reduce and prevent this.
Just a few years ago, there were virtually no specialty courses in animal law being taught in Australian Universities, but now there are courses being taught in many law faculties around the country, with more soon to be offered.
As I mentioned on my personal site a few months ago, I wrote one of the seventeen chapters in this book – all of the others of which were written by lawyers active in the field. If I had realised when I was writing my chapter that Michael Kirby would be publicly assessing the book to such a crowd in such a setting after having cast his forensic eye over the entire text, I would have put even more care into writing it!
As well as the formal public launch of the book, there was a keynote speech by Bruce Wagman, an experienced animal protection litigator from the USA. He is conducting a series of lectures around Australia over the next week as part the third annual Animal Law Lecture Series sponsored by Voiceless.
His reputation is one of a very effective legal and community advocate. He certainly is an effective public speaker, so if you are interested in the topic of animal rights law, I’d recommend trying to catch one of his talks.
He’s giving two speeches in Brisbane tomorrow (Thursday 7th), followed by talks at the Gold Coast, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne. Dates, times and venues are at this link.
(In case there is any suspiscion of a cash for comment element to this post, I should mention that I didn’t get paid for the chapter I wrote in the book and don’t get any royalties from the sales).
4 Comments
This the sort of book that book reviewers in the mainstream media probably won’t hear about, or be invited to review by their editors. Shame. Why don’t you review it on Crikey, Andrew? Or get someone else to do so…
Australia is such an anthropocentric country. Who’d want to be an animal here, unless you’re a human substitute like a dog? Sheep routinely left to roast in naked paddocks, roadkill a national sport, ducks blown out of the sky for fun, mass poisoning of native birds, koalas burned in “controlled” burns then marketed as proof of our kindness….
Thanks Frank – I’d feel a bit odd reviewing a book which contains a chapter I’d written, but it would be good to hear others’ perspectives.
I might see if there’s a transcript of Michael Kirby’s remarks being made available, or any other reviews in niche journals and post about or link to them.
The book is very much aimed at lawyers and people interested in the law. It could be used as a textbook (and probably already is), but having said that, there’s plenty of general information in there which would be useful and I think is in a form which would relatively easy for the average person to digest – although they have a bit of trouble digesting some of their food quite so easily afterwards.
I’d be interested in knowing what it contained about animal law in Tasmania (which seems to consider itself a separate country).
Add to Frank’s remarks the cruelty to chooks and pigs in factory farms here and the recent dropping of charges against one farmer, plus the routine 1080 poisoning of wildlife and the entertainment of rodeos. Tasmania should get the gong for most inhumane treatment of animals in Australia.
Does the book address the twin evils of Breed Specific Legislation and Civil Rights Abuses enacted to enforce it? Given that Qld is the worst case scenario of such animal cruelty and abuses one would hope so. If not it should be seen for what it is, a pandering to the likes of the Animal Rights industry (which the FBI has labelled domestic terrorists) to what ends? The elimination of pets and forced veganism!