Document type : book published by Mare & Martin
Author: editor Aloïse Quesne
Presentation : The growing public interest in the protection of animals comes in the wake of the reform of the French Civil Code which has, since 2015, stated in article 515-14 that "animals are living beings endowed with sentience". That said, the document does not define what is meant by "sentience", does not specify the animals concerned, and remains silent on the consequences, notably those in the legal domain, of recognising such sentience.
The purpose of this book is to draw attention to the main questions that arise from this silence. Are all animals legally recognized as sentient beings? Is sentience the same for all animals? Is the degree to which an animal is protected defined according to its sentience? And above all, how could the protection of animal sentience be improved through the law?
In this book, legal experts, political figures, biologists, philosophers, semioticians and veterinarians, both from France and elsewhere, offer a response to these essential questions in a rich variety of complementary contributions.
