Animal Law Centre

About the Centre

Inaugurated in 2018, the Animal Law Centre (ALC) is India’s first, and currently the only, research centre on animal law. The Centre was established to facilitate large-scale impact for animals through evidence-backed research and humane education.

Since its inception, ALC has grown into a regional hub for Asia, working at the intersection of producing scholarship, capacity-building, and policy engagement. It collaborates closely with civil society and government stakeholders to identify critical gaps, generate robust and high-quality data, and drive meaningful legal and policy reform.

Our Philosophy

At the Animal Law Centre, we believe that human treatment of nonhuman animals is a social justice issue and a mirror to society. Our work centres neglected questions and invisibilized identities, particularly at the intersection of animal welfare and environmental governance.

The Centre’s long-term vision is to support researchers and universities in establishing research centres and collaborating across countries in the Global South, thereby strengthening and expanding the animal advocacy movement, with a particular emphasis on advancing legal protections for the biggest, most neglected groups of animals, including animals farmed in industries

Research and Collaboration

• Collaboration between six universities across four continents: Aix-Marseille University (France), Lewis & Clark Law School (USA), Kent Law School (UK), University of Timișoara (Romania), University of Johannesburg (South Africa) for the Comparative Animal Law Workshop/Symposium (2024-present)
• Collaborated with the Animal Welfare Board of India to conduct Training Workshops for Honorary Animal Welfare Representatives on animal welfare laws (2025)
• Collaborated with the Harvard Animal Law and Policy Program to write a report on Animal Markets and Zoonotic Disease in India (2024)
• Collaborated with the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law to host and help organize the Law Lecturers Workshop in South Asia (2024)
• Collaborated with Ethical Seafood Research to conduct field surveys with pangasius aquaculture producers around the Kolleru Wildlife Sanctuary, a wetland protected under the RAMSAR convention. (2024)
• International Center for Animal Law and Policy (ICALP), Faculty of Law – Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (2018)

Outreach and Engagement

• Guest lectures for the Double Credit Course on “Animal Law: Perspectives from the Global South” by National Law University, Orissa, India. (2026)
• Delegate at UNEA-7 and UNEA-6, Nairobi, as part of the NGO Major Group Delegate (Africa Network for Animal Welfare) and the Children and Youth Major Group. (2025, 2026)
• Speaker at the International Aquaculture Law and Policy Symposium 2026 (Panel on “Strategies for Advocacy”), EAGx India 2025 (Lightning talk on “Legal Career Pathways to Help Millions of Animals”), AVA India 2025 (Panel on “Academic Field-building for Animal Law”); UK Animal Law Conference, Birmingham (2021 – Presenter on “True Cost of Eggs: Animal Welfare”, 2024 – Panel on “Aquaculture”, 2025 – Presenter on “Insects as Stakeholders”, 2026 – Presenter on “Restorative Justice to Address Cruelty Against Animals in India”); AI for Animals Conference, UC Berkeley 2025 (Lightning talk on “AI for Fishes”); Asia Farm Animal Day, Hanoi 2024 (Panel on “Aquatic Animals”).
• Global South Scholarship to present a paper titled “An Indian Perspective on Entry of Animals into Constitutions” at the World Congress of Constitutional Law held every four years, held at Johannesburg, South Africa, between 4–9th December 2022.
• Harvard South Asia Institute Symposium Panelist – Global Pandemics and Law (May 2021)
• Guest lectures on the topics “Animals & Ethics” and “International Law & Animal Welfare” at National Law University, Orissa, India (2020)
• Tel Aviv University, Environmental Justice and the Protection of Animals Rights Clinic (2019)
• Made representations to the Department of Fisheries (Uttarakhand and Karnataka), FSSAI (Report on Food Safety Risks in Fish Markets of Delhi), BIS (aquaculture and seaweed standards), and CPCB (aquaculture production systems) (2024).
• Panelist in the colloquium on “Cooperation, Contentment and Care to Enable Justice for All” organised by The Centre for Legal Philosophy and Justice Education, November 2–5, 2023, at NALSAR. Presented on “Whose constitutional right has been violated?”
• Presented a paper titled “Practical Lessons from India: Jallikattu and the Fallacy of Litigating Cultural Practice” in the 8th International Animal Futures Conference on the theme “Animal Advocacy Against the Grain? Traditions and Transformations in and around the Movement” organized by Loomus and EACALS in Estonia between June 15–17, 2023.
• NAAC Best Practice “Concern for other species”