Synonyms
Definition
Animal sovereignty theory is an approach to territorial rights in which wild animals are conceived of as sovereign communities, entitled to be recognized as the sovereign controllers of their own spaces.
Introduction
Animals “are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” So writes Henry Beston in his 1928 book The Outermost House (2003, 25). The idea was one echoed in the defining works of twentieth-century animal ethics, which tended to defend the idea that, when it came to wild animals, we should simply “[let] them be” (Regan 2004, 357). In one sense, animal sovereignty theory – the claim that wild animals should be conceived of as sovereign communities, entitled to be recognized as the sovereign controllers of their own spaces – offers a theoretical grounding of this view. In another sense, however, it calls to step beyond...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Beston H (2003) The outermost house: a year of life on the great beach of Cape Cod. Owl Books, New York
Cochrane A (2013) Cosmozoopolis: the case against group-differentiated animal rights. Law Ethics Philos 1:127–141
Cochrane A (2018) Sentientist Politics. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Cooke S (2017) Animal kingdoms: on habitat rights for nonhuman animals. Environ Values 26:53–72
Cormier AA, Rossi M (2018) The problem of predation in Zoopolis. J Appl Philos. 35:718–736
Donaldson S, Kymlicka W (2011) Zoopolis. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Donaldson S, Kymlicka W (2013) A reply to Svärd, Nurse, and Ryland. J Animal Ethics 3:208–219
Donaldson S, Kymlicka W (2015) Interspecies politics: reply to Hinchcliffe and Ladwig. J Political Philos 23:321–344
Goodin RE, Pateman C, Pateman R (1997) Simian sovereignty. Political Theory 25:821–849
Horta O (2013) Zoopolis, intervention, and the state of nature. Law Ethics Philos 1:113–126
Ladwig B (2015) Against wild animal sovereignty: an interest-based critique of Zoopolis. J Political Philos 23:282–301
Milburn J (2015) Rabbits, stoats and the predator problem: why a strong animal rights position need not call for human intervention to protect prey from predators. Res Publica 21:273–289
Milburn J (2016) Nonhuman animals and sovereignty: on Zoopolis, failed states and institutional relationships with free-living nonhuman animals. In: Woodhall A, Garmendia da Trindade G (eds) Intervention or protest. Vernon Press, Wilmington, pp 183–212
Regan T (2004) The case for animal rights: updated with a new preface. University of California Press, Berkeley
Singer P, Cavalieri P (eds) (1993) The great ape project: equality beyond humanity. Fourth Estate, London
Wadiwel D (2009) The war against animals. Domination, law and sovereignty. Griffith L Rev 18:283–297
Wadiwel D (2013) Zoopolis: challenging our conceptualisation of political sovereignty through animal sovereignties. Dialogue 52:749–758
Wadiwel D (2015) The war against animals. Brill, Leiden
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Milburn, J. (2020). Animal Sovereignty Theory. In: Kocsis, M. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68846-6_71-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68846-6_71-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68846-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68846-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities