Sunday, December 07, 2008

Sunday Round-up

A couple of nice opinion pieces this past week...

There was one in the Harvard Crimson talking about the progress of animal law both at law schools and as a field. As the article correctly notes, Harvard was one of the first law schools to offer such a course in the not-too-distant past. Today, it is increasingly de rigeur, with more than half of the nation's law schools offering this topic. The article does an admirable recap; especially useful for the other 99% of the population that doesn't follow these issues as closely as I (and likely you) do. The only disappointing thing, perhaps, is that as cutting edge as the school was nearly a decade ago when it first offered the class, this article didn't add anything new to the discussion.

Meanwhile, across the pond... a lifestyle piece in UK's The Guardian lamented the increasing number of "custody battles" involving companion animals. I found it encouraging. Not that I'm advocating for bitter and contested divorces, mind you. It's just good to see all of these notions (such as acknowledging that pet ownership is really more akin to custody) are really taking hold globally.

1 comment:

kelly g. said...

My husband and I included custody issues in our prenup. The lawyer who drafted the doc actually didn't seem all that surprised - or, if he was, he didn't let on.