Animal Rights

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights currently does not explicitly mention animals. The Charter emerges from a rights-based tradition that places the human at its centre, setting it apart from and above non-human animals, as well as the environment, which conditions human existence.

While scholars divide on questions of human exceptionalism, the necessity of anthropocentrism in rights-based approaches and jurisprudence, and related questions, this edited volume takes the Charter at face value, asking about human-animal relations under EU law: Are fundamental values of dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity and justice for humans only, or are some or several aspects of those values already extended to non-humans? Should the EU Charter include specific and codified rights for animals, too?