Legal Research

The One-Stop Animal Law Shop

By pbingham

Kudos to the Michigan State University College of Law!  They've created a terrific Website dedicated to current and historical Animal Law, both in the United States and around the world.

Federal and state statutes, and over 700 full-text cases are indexed by state, topic (e.g. Exotic pets,  genetic engineering, vet malpractice), and animal species.  The current month's new topics, cases and articles are highlighted and summarized on the home page.  The Publications page links the user to a library of articles addressing various topics in Animal Law, and a section of Pleadings, Briefs & Jury Charges has examples of legal documents indexed by case name and issue topics.  A smaller section offers a pull-down menu of country names offering links to information about Animal Law worldwide.   There's a Multimedia Podcenter where the user can download & play a selection of Podcasts.  MP3 files are available on a variety of topics, including "Can I put my pet in my will?" and "The police shot my dog...do I have any recourse?"  Especially nifty is a list of topics (e.g. Dogfighting, Equine Activity Liability Laws, Pet Trusts), each accompanied by a map of the United States.  Click on a state to view that state's laws on the selected topic.

With its attractive and easy to use design, the Animal Legal & Historical Web Center is a portal to a wealth of information for lay persons and law professionals alike.  As we say in the library profession:  check it  out!

Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on May 10, 2007 (boomark / email).