The Antwerp Centre for Continental Animal Law supports, participates in, and coordinates a number of key projects that reflect its mission to advance scholarly understanding of animals in law from a civil law perspective.
Project 1. A Continental Approach to Animal Rights
This project builds upon the doctoral research of Dr Eva Bernet Kempers and aims to develop a comprehensive manuscript outlining the foundations of animal rights in the civil law tradition. It sets out a conceptual and doctrinal framework for understanding animal rights as they might be recognised and developed within continental legal systems, rooted in existing categories and analytical methods of civil law.
Project 2. Access to Justice for Animals in Europe
In collaboration with Dr Soren Stig Andersen, Victoria Kuhborth, Marine Lercier and Dr Elien Verniers, Dr Eva Bernet Kempers is developing a European network of scholars, practitioners, and animal protection organisations through the AJA-project. The project investigates the current legal and procedural barriers to animals accessing courts and aims to identify pathways towards improving legal standing, representation, and enforcement mechanisms for animals within European jurisdictions, for instance by researching the possibility of an Aarhus Convention.
The AJA project can be followed on Linkedin. A first in-person event will be organized in the form of a conference and private workshop on 1-2 July 2025 at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, Germany. See the website for more information.
Project 3. Affective states of animals in legislation
As a member of the COST-Action AFFECT-EVO, Dr Eva Bernet Kempers is also involved in the development of white papers and recommendations to adjust the current legal framework in light of the most up-to-date scientific evidence on animals' affective states. This COST-Action, which consists of a large international network of animal scholars, scientists as well as social scientists as well as lawyers, aims to increase our knowledge on animal emotions. The role of the Centre is to lead the legal team to translate the findings into legal recommendations, specific to the context of continental European law. See the website for more information.
Project 4. Education and Training in Continental Animal Law
This project addresses the current lack of academic opportunities in animal (rights) law across Europe. It has two strands:
- Courses in animal (rights) law: supporting the development of dedicated courses on animal law and animal rights law in Belgian and Dutch universities, building upon the work done by the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law in this regard (see 'lecturers workshops'). Only very few universities in the Netherlands and Belgium currently offer a course in animal rights law to their students.
- LLM in Continental Animal Law: laying the groundwork for the establishment of a European LLM programme in Continental Animal Law. At present, no such specialised programme exists in Europe, and students cannot pursue in-depth legal training in animal rights from a civil law perspective. This project is developed in collaboration with the Working Group on the LLM in Animal Rights Law at the Animal Rights Law Teaching Network (at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law), led by Dr Malgorzata Lubelska.