Animal sensibility. Legal approaches and transdisciplinary issues

Friday, October 23 at the Normandy MRSH Caen

This international colloquium, supported by the MRSH, is organized under the auspices of the Normandy Chair for Peace, with the support of the Demolombe Institute, Caen la Mer and the University of Caen Normandy.

This event is placed under the high patronage of Jean-Paul COSTA, President of the René Cassin Foundation, Honorary State Councillor and former President of the European Court of Human Rights.

Animal protection has entered the political arena. For the first time in history, eleven animal rights political parties, spread across Europe, participated in the 2019 European elections. The European animalist parties received nearly 2,000,000 votes. The French Animalist Party, founded in 2016, received more than 2.2% of the vote. The citizens’ vote demonstrates that respect for animals is an important issue and that the question of their protection is a debate of general interest. The Civil Code, a reflection of French society, has moreover affirmed since 2015, under Article 515-14, that “animals are living beings endowed with sensibility.” However, we can note the absence of a definition of the animal and the notion of sensibility.

Speakers in biology, ethology, philosophy and semiotics will have the opportunity to communicate their knowledge on the notion of animal sentience. Which animals and which sensibility(s) are we talking about? Is sensibility the same for all animals? Wouldn’t the use of other notions be better able to identify the sensibility of certain animals?

An analysis of the consideration of animal sensibility in positive law will make it possible to understand that a categorical approach results in unequal protection. Indeed, the difficulty lies in the fact that belonging to a category, and therefore the degree of protection, does not depend on the species of the animal but on its situation: animals used in laboratories, animals raised for consumption, animals used in shows, wild animals… A prospective study of the taking into account of animal sensibility will be the occasion to understand how a global approach would allow a better legal protection of the animal. Contributions from foreign jurists will provide a comparative view of these issues.

On the occasion of the World Day for Animals in Laboratories, this symposium, the first of its kind in Normandy, aims to question the meaning and definition of the notion of animal sensibility and to reflect on the implementation of innovative legal mechanisms for a better protection of the animal.

Scientific direction:

Aloïse QUESNE, Senior Lecturer in Private Law, Member of the Léon Duguit Research Center (University of Evry Val d’Essonne), Associate Member of the Demolombe Institute (University of Caen Normandie), Laureate of the Law Prize of the Foundation Droit Animal Ethique & Sciences (LFDA) in 2014

Scientific committee :

• Pierre-Jérôme DELAGE, Professor of private law, University of Nantes.
• Cathy MORALES-FRENOY, Lawyer at the Paris and New York Bars.
• Jean-Marc NEUMANN, Secretary General and Coordinator of the Educational Group for Animal Law Studies.

Website of the event : https://sensi-animale.sciencesconf.org/