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SUMMARY:Use\, war\, and commercial society. Changing paradigms of human re
 lations with animals in the early modern law of nature and of nations - Pr
 ofessor Annabel Brett\, Faculty of History\, University of Cambridge 
DTSTART:20191030T170000Z
DTEND:20191030T181500Z
UID:TALK132853@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Surabhi Ranganathan
DESCRIPTION:This paper looks at how the legality of human relations with a
 nimals was constructed in the European law of nature and of nations\, from
  roughly the beginning of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eight
 eenth. It is by no means a complete survey\, but takes some key figures an
 d moments to suggest a trajectory – one which may not be the only story\
 , but which is nevertheless\, I think\, of some interest both from an hist
 orical and from a theoretical point of view. The last in the sequence is F
 rancis Hutcheson’s Short introduction to moral philosophy\, first publis
 hed in Latin in 1642. Hutcheson’s remarkably sympathetic treatment of an
 imals has been noticed before\, and associated with an Enlightenment move 
 away from the minimal sociality of self-interest towards a morality of ben
 evolence\, public good and sympathy. It is this that allows animals to hav
 e a right not to be subjected to unnecessary pain\, and indeed to enjoy fu
 rther rights due to their more expansive role within human social systems.
  While not disagreeing entirely\, this paper stresses by contrast Hutcheso
 n’s continuing debt to 17th-century natural law\, and in particular to S
 amuel Pufendorf. I argue that Pufendorf was key in transforming the human 
 use of animals into an economic relationship\, albeit one that was implaca
 bly hostile and exploitative. He did this by reconfiguring inter-human war
 fare\, too\, into an economic phenomenon\, at least in part. Thus\, the th
 eorisation of human-animal relations in the natural law tradition both tra
 cks and sheds light on the theorisation of human-human relations. I end wi
 th some thoughts on war and peace in both.
LOCATION:Lauterpacht Centre for International Law\, 5 Cranmer Rd
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