- Title
- Considering the scope of legal personality with special reference to the proposition of rights for non-human animals: the Al Shuwaikh Case and its implications for the development of South African Law
- Creator
- Humpel, Daniel https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9961-6882
- Subject
- Animal welfare -- Law and legislation -- South Africa
- Subject
- Animal rights -- South Africa
- Date
- 2022-02
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/28402
- Identifier
- vital:74290
- Description
- The treatment of sheep during export processes involving the Al Shuwaikh case has raised questions again about the scope and depth of non-human animal protections in South Africa and in particular the increasingly contested legal status of non-human animals under modern South African law. Currently non-human animals are classified as legal objects/things, and thus deprived of the benefits and protections afforded human animals, who are classified as legal subjects. Legal subjectivity is in turn the exclusive attribute of one who is considered a legal person i.e., a being or entity recognized under law as having legal personality. Fromthis basic distinction and concept in the law, all of the rights duties and capacities of humans and their collective legal vehicles arise. Equally, it is from their lack of legal personality under this legal classification, that non-human animals do not have/bear rights duties and capacities, and as a consequence are subject to the treatment that would otherwise be unacceptable if they were human animals. However, while this fundamental classification might seem to be an absolute in the legal system, the concept of legal personality is in fact a malleable construct, and has in fact changed and been changed through the ages in response to changing social mores of each age. Animal rights activists suggest therefore that one solution for addressing concerns regarding animal welfare would be to extend the scope of legal personality to include non-human animals. While prima face theoretically legally possible, this suggestion has been resisted on a variety of practical and intellectual grounds, thus creating a still contested area of social, and thus by natural extension, jurisprudential debate. Differing perceptions of the full nature and current capacity of the concept of legal personality lie at the heart of the debate/this contestation. Inspired by the Al Shuwaikh case, which serves as a new millennium factual basis/lens through which to beg the question of the exclusive attribution of personality to human but not non-human animals (or indeed other living or non-living entities), this thesis thus revisits the notion of legal personality, tracking its historical development and highlighting its de facto capacity for adaptation over time to respond changing social mores. Key changes and expansions of the construct are isolated, collected and compiled to provide a grounded overview of its larger potential for adaptation. Thereafter, and as a consequence of the aforementioned, the thesis then reflects on the current animal protection regime in South Africa, with due reference to glosses, where appropriate, gained to the perspectives gained from other jurisdictions about the potential for the extension of the concept of legal personality.
- Description
- Thesis (LLM) -- Faculty of Law, 2022
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xiv, 176 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Law
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
UFH Nelson R Mandela School of Law
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Thesis Final Edition (Humpel D).pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |