Prof Gary L. Francione: Lecture Podcast
Professor Gary L. Francione is the leading exponent of the Abolitionist Approach to animal rights and the first academic to teach animal rights theory in an American law school.
In July the UCD School of Sociology hosted 'Animal Rights July', five weeks of animal rights debate, lectures and documentaries with Professor Francione presenting the keynote lecture "The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?"
Professor Francione is very well known throughout the animal protection movement for his criticism of animal welfare law and the property status of nonhuman animals, and for his abolitionist theory of animal rights.
In 1990, together with his colleague Anna Charlton, he started the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic. This made Rutgers the first university in the United States to have animal rights law as part of the curriculum where students were awarded credit for both classroom work and work on actual cases involving animals.
His books explore his vision of animal rights - Francione argues for one right for nonhuman animals, the right not to be property. He is a critic of Peter Singer’s utilitarian philosophy which does not rule out all animal use and killing, and he objects to Tom Regan’s version of animal rights theory for its emphasis on nonhuman animals with sophisticated cognitive abilities. Francione's theory applies to all sentient beings.
Professor Francione is the author of numerous books and articles on animal rights theory and animals and the law, including Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation” (Columbia University Press, 2008); Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? (2000) (foreword by Alan Watson); Animals, Property, and the Law (1995) (foreword by William M. Kunstler); Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement (1996); and Vivisection and Dissection in the Classroom: A Guide to Conscientious Objection (with Anna E. Charlton) (1992). Professor Francione has also written in the areas of copyright, patent law, and law and science.
Listen to the lecture:
| Part 1 | 67 Minutes |
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| Part 2 | 60 Minutes |
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