Towards Legal Protection of Animal Interests: Nature-Based or Sentience-Based Approach to Animal Rights

Abstract

This article examines the idea of animal rights, arguing for a sentience-based or interest-based approach, rather than a nature-based approach. It begins by exploring the philosophical foundations of animal rights, addressing the question of whether animals have morally relevant interests that deserve legal protection. The paper then considers the legal status of animals and whether animals can be rights-holders. The nature-based approach to animal rights is critically analyzed and several objections to this framework are discussed. The article advances further arguments in support of the sentience-based approach to animal rights, contending that animal rights ought to be grounded in animals’ interests as sentient beings. It concludes that extending legal rights to animals as sentient beings aims to protect animals for their own sake, as individual beings with their own morally and legally relevant interests.