Abstract
This study seeks to highlight the main historical antecedents of the complex relationship between human beings and animals, bringing us closer towards the material sources that influenced the creation, transformation and / or derogation from different legal regulations that ultimately reduced animals to the realm of things and objects of law. Simplifying the study of the animal question, we will unravel the scarce but relevant bibliography in respect of this, from the various legal regulations of antiquity, through extravagant medieval trials, arriving at unpublished international treaties, constitutions, laws and ordinances that nowadays support the recognition of animal rights. This brief analysis presents varied philosophical, religious and cultural conceptions that allow us to involve ourselves in the wide debate on the main topics of Animal Law that have grown in popularity in recent decades, starting with the publishing of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation in 1975, and of the initiative of the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights in 1977. Furthermore, we will quickly look over the advances in the recognition of animal dignity, analysing Article 20 of the German Constitution of 2002, the recognition of the Rights of Nature in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008 and the Bolivian Constitution of 2009, and the recognition of animals as sentient beings in the Columbian Civil Code of 2016, as well as Ecuadorian regulations on this topic.
Highlights
This study seeks to highlight the main historical antecedents of the complex relationship between human beings and animals, bringing us closer towards the material sources that influenced the creation, transformation and / or derogation from different legal regulations that reduced animals to the realm of things and objects of law
Simplifying the study of the animal question, we will unravel the scarce but relevant bibliography in respect of this, from the various legal regulations of antiquity, through extravagant medieval trials, arriving at unpublished international treaties, constitutions, laws and ordinances that nowadays support the recognition of animal rights
This brief analysis presents varied philosophical, religious and cultural conceptions that allow us to involve ourselves in the wide debate on the main topics of Animal Law that have grown in popularity in recent decades, starting with the publishing of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation in 1975, and of the initiative of the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights in 1977
Summary
“(...) Sin embargo, había otro héroe, aunque éste era un ser irracional: el caballo. La gente, apasionada por estos animales, hablaba frecuentemente de ellos, conociendo todas sus virtudes y defectos, y sabiendo de memoria el nombre de todos sus favoritos...” 40. Respecto a otros datos o desarrollos teóricos paralelos, Lomeña hace un recuento señalando que para 1944, Donald Watson fundó la sociedad vegana en Bretaña y recomendó que los humanos dejaran de consumir todo tipo de productos animales; en una etapa más reciente, destaca también Peter Singer, quien desarrolla una interesante corriente del pensamiento, donde se cuestiona a los paradigmas clásicos sobre los que se asienta la sociedad moderna, en la cual los humanos solemos otorgar consideración moral a otros humanos, no sobre la base de la inteligencia, sino por su capacidad de sufrir; como los derechos de los nasciturus, los niños, los enfermos mentales, entre otros. El único límite defendible a la hora de preocuparnos por los intereses de los demás es el de la sensibilidad (entendiendo este término como una simplificación que, sin ser estrictamente adecuada, es útil para referirnos a la capacidad de sufrir y/o disfrutar)”
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