Mission and Vision
The Antwerp Centre for Continental Animal Law (ACCAL) is a central hub for the study of animals and the law within the civil law tradition, with a particular focus on continental Europe. It begins from the premise that animals are no longer regarded merely as legal things. This shift calls for sustained and rigorous investigation into the legal approach to animals within civil law systems, taking account public as well as private law dimensions.
The Centre is committed to analytical legal scholarship. It does not engage in advocacy or activism, but instead seeks to illuminate the ways in which the legal existence of animals is shaped through legislation, doctrine, and jurisprudence, and identifies the inconsistencies and incoherencies that arise in this regard. Rooted in the intellectual tradition of civil law, our work aims to develop a conceptual framework for understanding animals in legal terms beyond the traditional dichotomy of persons and things.
While the Centre primarily adopts a private law perspective—focusing on the legal status of animals in civil law—this is not to the exclusion of public law. Relevant public law protections are taken into account where they influence or complement the private law treatment of animals.
Research at the Centre is structured around five core pillars:
- Animal Status: Examining the current legal status of animals and how it diverges from that of legal things. This pillar also explores emerging conceptualisations of animals—such as their recognition as family members or companions—and considers possible new legal statuses within the civil law tradition.
- Animal Powers and Rights: Investigating the extent to which animals already possess simple rights, powers, or forms of legal agency. This includes instances where animals act in ways that could be seen as exerting agency—such as escaping their owners—and the legal responses to such actions.
- Animal Ownership: Rethinking property and entitlements over animals in light of their evolving legal recognition. This includes analysing doctrines of ownership, usufruct, and custody, and evaluating their suitability for sentient and autonomous beings.
- Animal Harm and Injury: Researching how harm to animals is assessed in legal proceedings, particularly in relation to compensation and moral damages. This pillar also considers how injury to animals might reflect broader shifts in legal reasoning concerning their value and dignity.
- Animal Standing: Assessing the legal mechanisms through which animals may be represented in court and the possibilities for granting them access to justice. This includes both procedural innovations and theoretical considerations around legal personhood and representation.
The Centre aims to foster collaboration among scholars working in the field of animal law in Europe. By connecting researchers and facilitating exchange, it seeks to contribute to the emergence of a coherent, civil law-based approach to animal rights and legal recognition.
Who are we?
The Centre was founded in April 2025 by Dr Eva Bernet Kempers through a BOF – Small Research Grant of the University of Antwerp. The Centre is embedded within the research line ‘between persons & things’ of the Research Group Personal Rights and Property Rights at the University of Antwerp, and supported and guided by the spokesperson of the Research Group, Prof Kristof Van Assche, as well as the two other leaders of the Research Line, Prof. Elise Goossens and Prof. Frederik Swennen.
Dr Eva Bernet Kempers completed her PhD on animal dignity in 2023. Apart from her postdoctoral research at the University of Antwerp, she is also involved as Junior Research Associate with the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law. During her PhD, she did research stays at the Helsinki Animal Law Centre and the Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg with the Global Animal Law programme.