LAW-6520 ANIMAL LAW AND PRACTICE
The class will cover the field of ?Animal Law? by combining the lecture approach, guest speakers, and student review, and a skills component requiring students to analyze and argue actual animal law cases. Students will be given the opportunity to draft a complaint, argue an appeal, and create and debate a criminal charging decision in an animal cruelty case. These skill exercises will provide students with real world facts and legal issues and give them the unique opportunity to compare their analysis with the actual results of the case. The course will initially discuss all of the potential areas of law that impact the field of ?Animal Law.? Topics addressed in depth thereafter will be those most likely to be encountered by an actual practitioner including pet custody, veterinary malpractice and other animal related torts, regulation of dangerous dogs, federal and state anti-cruelty laws, the federal Animal Welfare Act; constitutional issues (such as free exercise of religion and free speech issues), puppy lemon laws, standing to enforce animal protection laws, and rights of individuals that rely upon service animals