New ICARE resource: Key Concepts for Animal Rights Law (Vol. 1)

By mlercier @ 2026-01-15T12:11 (+2)

ICARE has just published its first e-book: Key Concepts for Animal Rights Law: A Guide to Critical Terms for Animal Rights Advocates (Vol. 1, 2026).

This is a movement capacity-building resource aimed at improving shared vocabulary and conceptual clarity across animal advocacy, so organisations and advocates can develop sharper analysis, more coherent strategies, and clearer communication (both internally and externally) across jurisdictions and approaches.

What’s inside (Vol. 1)

Ten short, standalone concept chapters (each ending with an open discussion question and including references), covering:

• domesticated, liminal, and wild animals
• animal rights
• moral agents vs moral patients
• legal personhood for animals
• duties to wild animals
• animal welfare science
• sentience and how to assess evidence of sentience

How this may be useful

• Onboarding: a shared primer for new team members.
• Internal learning & community building: team reading groups to align language across functions.
• Training & workshops: a concept as the foundation for an internal session (with the discussion question as the exercise prompt).
• Strategy / theory of change / project design / grant applications: a checklist to pressure test assumptions and framing before writing or fundraising.
• Litigation / legal reform / policy: strengthen definitions and analytical baselines in memos, drafting, and advocacy materials.
• Campaigning: refine public-facing framing and avoid conceptual slippage in comms and mobilisation.
• Corporate engagement: support precise asks and messaging.
• Research: a structured starting point for conceptual sections and literature reviews, with references to go deeper.
• Education: a companion reading for students (one concept for one class, or the full volume across a module).

Pair it with ICARE’s Resource Library

For those interested, the e-book can be combined with ICARE’s Resource Library to maximise practical value:

• Legal News About Animals: short, structured notes on legal and policy developments globally, useful as case studies for training, classroom, or team discussions.
• Bibliography Recommendations: curated open-access readings to deepen internal learning, strengthen research/writing, or build syllabi quickly.
• AI and Animals: resources spanning issues from precision livestock farming to AI and companion animals and research on understanding other animals’ communication, useful for horizon scanning and contemporary discussion exercises.

Download the e-book
Access the Resource Library

If you end up using the e-book (or the Resource Library), I would be grateful to hear how it’s being used in practice. You can reach me at marine.lercier@icare-animals.org.