University of Melbourne
School of Historical And Philosophical Studies
PhD, 2013
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  •  120
    The Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare are Rights
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 27 (4): 649-662. 2014.
    In this paper I defend a theory of welfare rights for nonhuman animals. I do this by demonstrating that a well-established framework for protecting the interests of farm animals, the ‘Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare’, is already functioning just as a set of rights. To support this claim I adopt a common approach to detecting evidence for deontological reasoning and look at the structural features of rights. I first consider Hohfeld’s system of legal rights and consider whether the Five Freedoms …Read more
  •  70
    Trespass, Animals and Democratic Engagement
    with Siobhan O’Sullivan and Scott Brenton
    Res Publica 19 (3): 205-221. 2013.
    Since at least the 1970s, one of the stock standard tools in the animal protection movement’s arsenal has been illegal entry into factory farms and animal research facilities. This activity has been followed by the publication of images and footage captured inside those otherwise socially invisible places. This activity presents a conundrum: trespass is illegal and it is an apparent violation of private property rights. In this paper we argue that trespass onto private property can be justified …Read more
  •  45
    Animal Activists, Civil Disobedience and Global Responses to Transnational Injustice
    with Siobhan O’Sullivan and Scott Brenton
    Res Publica 23 (3): 261-280. 2017.
    Traditionally, acts of civil disobedience are understood as a mechanism by which citizens may express dissatisfaction with a law of their country. That expression will typically be morally motivated, non-violent and aimed at changing their government’s policy, practice or law. Building on existing work, in this paper we explore the limits of one well-received definition of civil disobedience by considering the challenging case of the actions of animal activists at sea. Drawing on original interv…Read more
  •  16
    Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies
    Journal of Animal Ethics 4 (1): 114-115. 2014.
    Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human–Animal Studies by Margo deMello aims to provide a comprehensive review of the emerging discipline known as human–animal studies. The aim of the book is twofold: to serve both as a useful overview of a vast literature for scholars and as an accessible introductory textbook for students. The book is most impressive in its breadth, yet brief entries are sometimes at the expense of a more nuanced discussion, so that both the complexity of human–animal re…Read more
  •  2
    Review (review)
    Journal of Animal Ethics 4 (1). 2014.