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Gary L. Francione

Professor of Law, Rutgers University - Newark

Gary L. Francione is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University Law School and is resident at the Newark, New Jersey, campus. He is also Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. His scholarship has focused on the property status of animals and the resulting structural problems with animal welfare laws. He has developed a theory of animal rights based on the recognition that the moral value of animals requires that we accord them the right not to be used as property.

Professor Francione has been teaching animal rights theory and the law for more than 30 years. He has lectured on the topic throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, and has been a guest on many radio and television shows.

He is the author of numerous books and articles on animal rights theory and animals and the law. His most recent books, co-authored with Anna Charlton, are: "Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach" and "Eat Like You Care: An Examination of the Morality of Eating Animals."

His other books include "The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?" (2010), "Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation" (2008); "Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog?" (2000); "Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement" (1996); and "Animals, Property, and the Law" (1995).

Professor Francione is the co-editor (with Professor Gary Steiner) of a series, Critical Perspectives on Animals: Theory, Culture, Science and Law, published by Columbia University Press.

Professor Francione and Adjunct Professor Anna Charlton started and operated the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Clinic from 1990-2000, making Rutgers the first university in the U.S. to have animal rights law as part of the regular academic curriculum and to award students academic credit, not only for classroom work, but also for work on actual cases involving animal issues. With Anna Charlton, he teaches a course on human rights and animal rights, as well as courses and seminars on animal rights theory and the law. He also teaches traditional law courses on the law school and undergraduate levels.

Francione received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Rochester, and both his M.A. in philosophy and his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was articles editor of the Virginia Law Review. He clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as the late Judge Albert Tate Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Law, Rutgers University Newark