RAC member, Dr Jeanette Rowley, introduces a new publication on the relationship of law to veganism in different parts of the world.
Over the last decade or so members of The Vegan society's Rights Network, scholars, lawyers and engaged lay vegans have had many discussions about vegan rights and discrimination as issues intrinsic to animal rights. We maintain that to give effect to the rights of animals, we must recognise and defend the human right - or duty- as we believe, to care about other animals.
A few months prior to the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr Carlo Prisco and I contracted with Lexington publishers to produce an edited volume of chapters on the relationship of law to veganism in different parts of the world. We had already agreed timescales with contributors in other countries, but we didn't know then that we were about be impacted by a global pandemic. However, although our production schedule was slower than first planned, we all managed to maintain steady progress and were delighted to complete our project in the spring of 2021.
Law and Veganism: international perspectives on the human right to freedom of conscience is edited by Jeanette Rowley and Carlo Prisco and has contributions by Nuno Alvim (Portugal); Edie Bowles and Jeanette Rowley (UK); Jordi Casamitjana (UK); Jade Elliott-Archer (UK); Sorin Ionescu (Canada); Adam P. Karp (USA); Camille Labchuk and Krystal-Anne Roussel (Canada); Researcher Network member, Marie Laffineur-Pauchet, (France); Ralf Muller-Amenitsch (Germany); Matthew Overton (UK); Carlo Prisco (Italy); Angela Radich (Australia) and Joe Wills, and a Foreword by Richard Twine, chair of The Vegan Society’s Research Advisory Committee.
Our contributors discuss constitutional issues, vegan legal cases, the concept of protection for vegan ‘belief’ in human rights and equality law, the legal requirement to provide vegan food, animal agriculture and plant-based, vegan food in the context of the human right to food, and the rights of vegans in education and in health care.
Research Advisory Committee member, Kay Peggs, of Kingston University comments that this important, informed, and thoroughly readable book exposes the prejudices suffered by vegans in a range of countries and contexts, and the laws that could, should, and very occasionally do offer protection against this discrimination. Lawyers, employers, policy-makers, vegans, and all those who seek to challenge injustice should read this book.
The views expressed by our Research News contributors are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
