Michaelmas Term Conference: ’Promoting Responsible Governance of Animal Protection: Policy Reform for an Ethical Future’
The Schweitzer Institute is pleased to be partnering with the Centre for Animals & Social Justice (CASJ) for our 2025 conference, ‘Promoting Responsible Governance of Animal Protection: Policy Reform for an Ethical Future’. The event took place at the Cambridge University Faculty of Divinity on Friday, 21 November 2025, bringing together academics, legal experts, policy-makers, and advocates to address how animal protection can be advanced through more effective, transparent, and accountable governance.
Despite broad public backing for higher animal welfare standards, persistent gaps remain between public opinion, policy, and implementation. The United Kingdom’s current arrangement is characterised by fragmented and inconsistent oversight. Advisory bodies such as the Animal Welfare Committee and Animal Sentience Committee lack binding legislative authority, resulting in the marginalisation of animal interests in decision-making and an ongoing failure to translate public concern into policy outcomes.
Building on the 2024 conference discussions of ecocentric ethics and advocacy for a governmental Animal Protection Commission (APC), the 2025 event focused on the political, structural, and legal reforms needed to embed animal protection as an explicit goal of public governance. Core themes included the democratic deficit in animal welfare policy-making, options for deliberative and participatory mechanisms to give animals greater representation, and the importance of transparency and accountability in both the drafting and enforcement of animal protection law.
Speakers included:
Allen Thompson (Schweitzer Fellow, Peterhouse Cambridge)
A brief overview of Professor Thompson's work as the 2025 Schweitzer Fellow
Gisella Marinuzzi (Schweitzer Institute)
The Schweitzer Institute's collaboration with CASJ on the Animal Protection Commission
Dan Lyons (Centre for Animals & Social Justice)
‘Institutionalising Animal Protection [IAP]: what it means and why it matters’
Edie Bowles (The Animal Law Foundation)
‘How using the law can impact policy’
Charlotte Flores (Bryant Research)
‘Trade Policy and the Governance of Farm Animal Welfare Standards in Post-Brexit Britain’
Sean Butler (University of Cambridge)
‘Incremental implementation as a strategic approach to advancing animal rights law’
Adrian Ramsay MP (Green Party)
‘On the forthcoming Animal Welfare Strategy'
Pablo Magaña Fernández (Trinity College Dublin) – via Zoom
‘Representing animals in times of polarization’
Clare Palmer (Texas A&M University)
‘Wild animals and contested values in a changing world’
Matthew Sims (University of Cambridge)
‘A Biocentric Personhood Framework’
Videos of the conference will shortly be accessible via our 'Archive' page.
For full information about CASJ’s ongoing research on animal protection, governance reform, please see: CASJ homepage.