Frontline Lawyers: the Law as a Tool for Social Change

The role the use of law and lawyers have played in social change is widely known, from Gandhi and Mandela leading civil rights movements in India and South Africa, through to sitting judges deciding in favour of huge social change, such as Lord Mansfield in the case of Somerset v Stewart (1772) who decided that slavery had never been authorised by statute in England and Wales and ordered an enslaved man to be freed.  Similarly groundbreaking lawyers like Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee successfully represented their client Jane Roe (real name Norma McCorvey) in the US  Supreme Court, which ruled that the Constitution of the United States gave the right to abortion.

The reason for the law's importance is multifaceted. Due to its authoritative and binding nature it is able to solidify change in a way few tools are; however, the more intangible aspects of the law, such as its air of legitimacy and credibility, should not be discounted. 

What the law and lawyers can do for animals

Animals are afforded protections under the law, but those laws are rarely scrutinised and applied. By bringing animal law within the purview of the courts will ensure those laws are scrutinised and applied, in addition to many secondary, but no less important, benefits. 

As one of the most esteemed professions, it is undeniable that having animals discussed under the law mainstreams animal protection, much in the same way it has mainstreamed other social issues. 

When a case is before a court it is not just whether it wins that has significance, having matters discussed before the court determines that the matter, and the subject in the case, whether that be human or non-human animal, are worthy of judicial consideration. This consideration legitimises animals as members of our society worthy of legal protections. It changes the perception of animals from mere things to members of society and subjects under the law.