Developing Animal Law in Nepal

Nepal is known for its majestic mountains, rich culture, Mount Everest, and being home to one of the World Heritage Sites that is known around the world as the birthplace of Buddha. Despite its reputation as a country of compassion, animal law has not yet developed roots. Among the animal welfare issues of paramount importance in Nepal include: the care and treatment of “street dogs”, the lack of adequate animal welfare legislation, treatment of captive elephants, and religious sacrifices that cause substantial suffering to animals, such as the Gadhimai festival.

Our shared passion for Nepal, combined with our dedication to animal welfare, had led us to launch a collaborative project to bring the field of animal law to law schools in Nepal. The idea for the collaboration began in January of 2024, when we met for the first time in person in Kathmandu, to explore the possibility of working together with law schools in Nepal, to bring the field of animal law into the curriculum, where it doesn’t currently exist. As classmates in the online animal law advanced degree program at Lewis & Clark Law School, we were thrilled to finally meet in person and to explore where our shared passions would lead. When a new call for Global Ambassador Project (GAP) applications was announced we submitted a proposal to grow the work we had started earlier in the year. GAP funding from the Center for Animal Law Studies allowed us to hit the ground running.

During the first half of our GAP year, our work has focused mainly on interacting with students and faculty at both Lumbini Buddhist University Law School and at Kathmandu University School of Law (KUSOL). The main purpose has been to raise awareness about the field of animal law, as a discipline in its own right, and to encourage students to seek out opportunities for studying animal law, including as a possible option for their future careers. We’ve given talks in several venues (i.e. law schools and at one veterinary college) and have worked with faculty and students to expose them to different topics in animal law, including the SAVE Nepal website that Julie developed as part of a course project during her time in the MSL program.

During a visit to Kathmandu in the beginning of November, we were delighted to meet with the Dean of KUSOL, as well as Professor Shiva Paudel, a law professor who teaches a course in legal research methods, part-time, at the law school. Our sense that animal law would be of interest bore out when we learned that KUSOL students had expressed interest in topics related to animal law for their course term papers.

We first introduced students to the topic of animal welfare, and the difference between animal welfare and animal rights. The SAVE Nepal website is populated with information related to animal law and there is also information specific to Nepal and the wide variety of topics that concern animal protection and welfare of animals in Nepal. The students also gathered information by reading articles and doing a literature review about their topics. Each student also collected primary research data involving interviews with a variety of different people, including staff from an animal-related non-governmental organization (NGO), local government officials, as well as conservation officers from one of the national parks.

One particularly interesting aspect of the first cohort of students was the wide range and complementary nature of the topics the students chose to explore. Julie even remarked how pleased she was with their selections, noting that if she had assigned topics herself, she would have chosen the very same ones. For example, one student researched and wrote about street dogs, examining whether there are any specific laws protecting their welfare. Another student investigated the legal protections for working animals, looking into existing laws and directives—or the lack thereof. A third student explored the issue of wildlife poaching and its impact on Nepal’s biodiversity. Finally, the last student tackled the highly sensitive and controversial topic of cultural animal sacrifice, focusing specifically on the festival that takes place every five years at the Temple of Gadhimai. This festival, widely criticized for its brutality, even became the subject of a 2016 Nepal Supreme Court case.

Once the students’ papers were finished, we reviewed them and provided feedback to each of the students and their professor. Julie also worked with the students to guide them in preparing short presentations about their research for the first-ever, animal law seminar in Nepal at Kathmandu University School of Law held this past spring. A playlist with videos of each of the talks can be found on the SAVE Nepal YouTube channel. The students are also planning to write and to publish short news articles in Nepali about their research as a way to help raise awareness among the general public about the topics in animal law that they wrote about.

During the second half of our GAP year, we are developing an animal law course, which will be made available to Nepalese law students through a password-protected website for asynchronous learning. Julie’s course will provide a broad introduction to the field of animal law, offering a general overview, while Varnika’s course will delve deeper into Nepal’s current legal framework and compare it with relevant laws in India. In the future, these courses may also be offered in person and enhanced with live lectures by guest speakers.

Perhaps the most exciting outcome of our work so far is the growing interest in animal law in Nepal. As more students hear about the opportunity to study animal law through friends and peers, enthusiasm and engagement continue to build. We are eager to see how our efforts during this GAP year help to facilitate the development of animal law and its impact on improving animal welfare for Nepal’s diverse wildlife, street dogs, elephants, working animals, and all animals who Nepalese animal advocates will continue to work to protect.

About the Authors

Julie Palais (Animal Law MSL, ’23, US) retired from the National Science Foundation in 2016 and began her “encore career” in animal welfare. She was among the first cohort of students to complete the Master of Studies in Animal Law at the Center for Animal Law Studies and graduated with honors. Julie’s interests are wide-ranging and include the welfare of free-roaming dogs, crimes against animals (e.g. animal cruelty and neglect, including domestic animal abandonment), human-animal (both domestic animals, and wildlife) conflict, the welfare of working animals, especially equids (horses and donkeys), and the current and future issues related to animal agriculture in Nepal.

Varnika Singh (Animal Law LLM, ’23, India) is a practicing advocate with 15 years of legal experience and Head of Legal at the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO), India. She holds LLM degrees in Animal Law from Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, and National Law University, Bhopal. Her expertise spans animal law, IPR, human rights, and consumer protection, with notable litigation on street dog welfare, illegal dog fighting, Jallikattu, circus animal bans and sexual crimes against animals.

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was founded in 2008 with a mission to educate the next generation of animal law advocates and advance animal protection through the law. With vision and bold risk-taking, CALS has since developed into a world-renowned animal law epicenter. In addition to JD study, CALS offers an advanced degree program in-person and online. CALS’ Alumni-in-Action from more than 30 countries are making a difference for animals around the world. CALS is a self-funded Center within the law school operating under the Lewis & Clark College 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and is able to provide these educational opportunities through donations and grants.