concept

Nonhuman personhood

The legal idea that a non-human entity can be a rights-bearing subject rather than an object of property. The difference from animal-welfare law is the crux: welfare law regulates how animals may be treated while keeping them property, whereas personhood denies that property status outright. Earth precedents are scattered but real: an Argentine court in 2014 recognised Sandra the orangutan as a "non-human person"; India in 2013 declared dolphins non-human persons and banned performance tanks; New Zealand in 2017 recognised the Whanganui River as a legal person with appointed guardians. New York's highest court, meanwhile, rejected the petition for Happy the elephant in 2022, over two dissents.