When either animalists or environmentalists get together and talk about "issues" that are important to them, there is almost no overlap in the topics. There is always the common point, that some humans or corporations are causing the harms they are concerned about, but that is not particularly helpful to solving problems. So the groups go about their good work without reaching out to others, as they seldom share priorities in a world of limited resources." From the foreword by David S. Favre, Professor of Law The Nancy Heathcote Professor of Property and Animal Law, Michigan State University College of Law

This edited volume by Professor Randall S. Abate of Florida A&M University College of Law presents a collection of 17 chapters in an attempt to fill the gap as illustrated above between the complex legal issues that matter most to environmental law and animal law movements. Environmental law has a longer history and is more established than its animal law counterpart with intricate layers of international, federal, state, and local laws. Animal law currently faces many of the legal and strategic challenges that environmental law faced in seeking to establish a more secure foothold in U.S. and international law and, as such, stands to gain valuable insights from the lessons of the environmental law movement's experience in confronting those challenges.

These chapters compare the very different trajectories of the regulatory history of both movements, examining the legal intersections that may exist across them. Prof. Abate draws on the talents of 22 experts in their fields from academia, non-profits, and the legal profession to examine the ways in which animal rights and welfare law can benefit from environmental law. The chapters address various contexts and perspectives from U.S. law, foreign domestic law, and international law on substantive issues including climate change, international trade and the environment, concentrated animal feeding operations, invasive species, lead pollution, and fisheries management, and procedural issues including standing and damages. The book concludes with two chapters that offer a vision for the future regarding how animal law can learn from environmental law and how the two movements can better coordinate their common objectives.