Review of European and Comparative Law

Animal Protection and Environmental Constitutionalism in Italy: An Anthropocentric Perspective Before and After the 2022 Reform

2026-06-30T18:50:07+02:00

This article argues that, even after the 2022 constitutional reform, animal protection in Italy remains a mediated and anthropocentric form of constitutional protection, embedded within environmental constitutionalism and entrusted to legislative discretion. The Italian case show how constitutional law can absorb evolving social sensitivities and demands for environmental protection and animal welfare without symbolic over-constitutionalization or a transformation of the existing constitutional foundations.

Fur Farming in Ukraine: Legal Conflicts and Prospects for Reform in Light of National Legislative Adaptation to the EU Acquis

2026-06-30T18:50:15+02:00

The article examines the legal nature and specific features of ensuring animal welfare in the fur farming sector. It analyzes EU legislation governing fur animal husbandry, as well as the stages and legal mechanisms of adapting national legislation to the EU acquis. It is argued that the system of international legal regulation concerning the treatment of fur-bearing animals is fundamentally grounded in the principles of animal welfare and protection. The study substantiates that the key legal problem in Ukraine lies in the uncertainty of the legal status of fur-bearing animals: on the one hand, national legislation applies to them the regime of farm animals; on the other hand, it effectively fails to regulate the specific conditions of their breeding and maintenance, thereby disregarding their ethological needs as non-domesticated (wild) species. On the basis of this analysis, the article proposes revising the legal status of fur-bearing animals so as to prioritize their biological nature over considerations of economic exploitation. The research established that the transition from treating animals as objects of property rights to recognizing them as sentient beings constitutes a cornerstone of contemporary legislative norm. It is demonstrated that the inability of wild predators to fully express their natural behavior within the confined space of cages creates a legal conflict between agricultural law norms and European animal welfare standards. In light of global and European trends towards abandoning fur production, the article proposes drawing on Poland's experience of introducing a complete ban on fur farming as a branch of animal husbandry. It is argued that the optimal legal strategy for Ukraine should be based on the principle of proportionality. This entails implementing a model of balancing interests that harmonizes the ethical requirement of animal protection with the socio-economic rights of economic operators.

Animal Protection: From Property Rights Towards Legal Capacity?

2026-06-30T18:50:08+02:00

This article examines the evolution of animal protection law from its traditional foundations - anchored in the property-based conception of animals as objects - towards more complex contemporary regulatory models. Through a comparative analysis of European legal systems and the overarching EU and ECHR frameworks, the study explores how administrative, environmental, and criminal law interact in shaping the legal status of animals. Special attention is given to the Hungarian system, highlighting persistent anthropocentric structures and emerging doctrinal tensions. The paper situates these developments within broader debates on vulnerability, equal protection, and the potential constitutional recognition of animals' fundamental rights.

Judicial Reponse to Animal Cruelty: An Empirical Analysis of Czech Practice and Comparative Perspectives

2026-06-30T18:50:10+02:00

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of sentencing patterns in Czech criminal courts regarding animal cruelty, situating these findings within a broader comparative framework. The study first defines the statutory elements of animal-related offences and the corresponding sanctions across selected European jurisdictions. This theoretical foundation is supported by an empirical study based on a content analysis of over 300 district court judgments issued between 2015 and 2025. Using quantitative legal analysis, the author examines sanctioning mechanisms, focusing specifically on legal qualification, the types of penalties, and their severity. The research investigates the specific sanctions and sentence lengths applied within this legislative framework while identifying the key aggravating and mitigating factors considered in judicial practice. The study concentrates on the judicial response to acts that have reached the threshold of criminal liability. The findings reveal substantive limitations in the Czech sentencing regime, in that significant legislative increases in statutory sentencing ranges have not resulted in a tangible increase in sentence severity in practice; these results provide a robust basis for discussion in light of international standards and effective animal welfare mechanisms.

Protection of Chickens Kept for Meat under EU Law: Legalized Suffering?

2026-05-27T15:07:57+02:00

The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is the most numerous domestic animal in the European Union, with several billion individuals slaughtered annually for meat production. Over recent decades, selective breeding has prioritized rapid growth and high feed efficiency, resulting in chickens reaching slaughter weight at an exceptionally early age. This article analyzes relevant EU legislation and juxtaposes these provisions with current scientific evidence on poultry welfare. It demonstrates that, despite limited progress in recognizing chickens' welfare requirements, the legislation remains insufficient in several key areas, particularly with respect to selective breeding that prioritizes high productivity at the expense of animal welfare. By highlighting these gaps, the article underscores the need for a more evidence-based approach to animal welfare law and policy, emphasizing the necessity of revising the current legislative standards for the keeping of chickens kept for meat and rethinking the broader food system in which these animals are produced.

Enforcement-Oriented Animal Welfare Reform in Slovakia: Comparative Lessons from Poland, Hungary, and Czechia

2026-05-19T10:44:34+02:00

This article offers a systematic analysis of the legal protection of animals in Slovakia with targeted comparative reference points from Poland, Hungary, and Czechia. It firsts situates Slovak law within the international and EU framework, highlighting how animal welfare standards have progressively shaped national legislation. We then examine the main public and private law instruments governing animals, including the Veterinary Act and the dereification of animals in civil law. The core of the article analyzes two groups of animals: companion animals and farm animals. For each group, we outline the applicable welfare standards and illustrate typical problem areas, such as online trade in companion animals and intensive livestock production. A further section assesses the institutional and sanctioning framework, focusing on the interaction between administrative and criminal liability and the growing, but still uneven, role of civil society. The article concludes by identifying key enforcement deficits and proposing targeted reforms to strengthen outcome-oriented welfare enforcement and improve the regulation of breeding and online trade.

Proportional Protection of Animals in a Constitutional State

2026-06-30T18:50:09+02:00

Animal protection in the modern (model) constitutional state constitutes a complex constitutional issue that essentially boils down to the necessity of applying the constitutional mechanism of proportionality to this subject matter. Consequently, this requires a proper balancing of the relationship between constitutional values, primarily environmental protection and the animal welfare it encompasses, and constitutionally guaranteed individual rights, particularly economic freedom, the right to property, and freedom of religion. From this perspective, the principle of proportionality becomes an indispensable normative tool, allowing an assessment of the extent to which a constitutional state may limit its citizens' rights in the name of animal protection. This study addresses the theoretical aspects of this issue, illustrating them with selected examples from Polish and European legal practice. The aim of these considerations is to demonstrate that effective constitutional protection of animals, understood as an expression of humanitarianism and responsibility for the natural environment, is not only possible, but necessary within a constitutional state, while its specific form is primarily shaped by dynamically changing axiological conditions.

Can Animal Welfare Serve as a Climate Adaptation Tool? The EU Law Barriers to Integrated Regulation

2026-06-30T18:50:12+02:00

Climate change poses severe risks to livestock systems through increased thermal stress, disease pressure, and extreme weather events. Empirical evidence demonstrates that measures improving animal welfare, such as enhanced ventilation, appropriate stocking densities, and environmental monitoring, simultaneously strengthen climate resilience. This article examines why EU legal frameworks do not systematically recognize this welfare-climate nexus. It demonstrates that the separation between animal welfare law and environmental law is not merely accidental but reflects the asymmetrical design of horizontal integration clauses in EU primary law. Animal welfare regulation developed as an ethically oriented regime aimed at protecting individual animals, establishing minimum husbandry standards without reference to environmental resilience. Environmental law, by contrast, evolved to protect ecosystems and natural resources through a holistic, system-oriented approach. Climate adaptation frameworks, situated within environmental law and grounded in Article 11 TFEU, do not systematically incorporate individual animal welfare, which remains governed by the more limited integration clause in Article 13 TFEU. The consequences extend beyond conceptual inconsistency. Regulatory practice does not systematically integrate welfare measures into climate adaptation planning,even where such integration would enhance both animal welfare and environmental resilience. This produces a coordination deficyt that is partly shaped by the asymmetrical structure of EU primary law, rather than by policy choice or implementation deficits alone. The article argues that addressing climate risks in livestock systems requires moving beyond the current separation of regulatory frameworks. Without rethinking the relationship between animal welfare and environmental integration, climate adaptation frameworks will continue to overlook welfare-based measures that function as effective tools of resilience.

The Status of Animals in Intellectual Property Law: A Theoretical Overview of the Issue

2026-06-30T18:50:14+02:00

Much attention has been devoted to the legal status of animals in property law. Less attention has been paid to the analysis in intellectual property law. This article deals with the latter issue. The legal status of animals can be viewed from many different perspectives. The author first considers whether an animal can be treated as an intagible good. Next, the article discusses the issue of animal creativity and the possibility of recognizing an animal as an author of a work. The entire article is set in the broad conext of intellectual property law, which includes not only industrial property law (especially patents and trademark law), but also copyright law. There are differences between individual legal systems in this area, which is why the article focuses on issues that are generally common to individual countries. The article concludes with a summary, in which the author formulates more general conclusions and proposals de lege ferenda.

The Emergence of Sustainable Animal Protection in European Law – Conceptual Foundations, Doctrinal Limits, and Comparative Governance Patterns

2026-06-30T18:50:06+02:00

This article examines Sustainable Animal Protection (SAP) as an emerging analytical and governance framework in European law: a shift from sectoral welfare standards and conversation-oriented fauna protection toward an integrated legal architecture that linkt Treaty-based sustainability commitments to animal-welfare requirements and operationalizes tchem through blended instruments. It argues that EU law is progressively linking animal welfare with environmental integration, official controls, traceability requirements, and institutional capacity, while maintaining important doctrinal distinctions between the protection of animals as sentient individual beings and conservation regimes concerned with species, habitats, and biodiversity. Methodologically, the article combines doctrinal analysis of EU primary and secondary law with a focused comparative governance typology and a Hungarian case study. The comparative dimension identifies several regulatory patterns among Member States, including market-based approaches, civil-society certification schemes, statutory labeling models, mixed forms of informational governance, and coordinated public-funding frameworks. The article concludes that sustainable animal protection should be understood primarily as a governance-design challenge. Its durability depends not only on the articulation of substantive welfare standards, but also on enforceable control mechanisms, stable financing structures, periodic review, and transparent coordination among public authorities, expert institutions, and civil-society actors.

Criminal Liability for Organizing Animal Fights in Poland – Selected Comparative Perspectives from European Legal Systems

2026-06-30T18:50:13+02:00

This article addresses the issue of criminal liability for organizing animal fights. The first part discusses the legal solutions adopted in Poland. It indicates that organizing animal fights is treated as a crime of animal abuse, while organizing fights involving animals constitutes a petty offense under Article 37, Section 1 of the Animal Protection Act. The next part presents legal solutions regarding criminal liability for organizing animal fights in selected European countries. The conclusion presents a de lege ferenda proposal for a separate classification of the crime of organizing animal fights in the Polish legal system.

The EU and Polish Legal Framework on Aquatic Invasive Alien Species

2026-06-30T18:50:16+02:00

Invasive alien species pose a serious threat to the aquatic environment, both ecologically and economically. Therefore, their introduction and spread must be prevented using the appropriate legal instruments. In the EU, protection against invasive species is detailed in Regulation No. 1143/2014, while in Poland, it is regulated by the Act on Alien Species of 2021. This article claims to present the status and legal instrumtnes relating to the prevention of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species in inland waters in the EU and Poland in the context of the ecological disaster in the River Oder. Based on the analysis, legal gaps have been identified, particularly regarding the identification and consideration of invasive species in assessing the ecological status of waters. The analysis concludes that the legal protection of waters should be comprehensive, taking into account regulations governing invasive species, primarily in a preventive and remedia context, by implementing appropriate proceduresfor monitoring IAS in waters. More detailed procedures for the detection and control of aquatic invasive species, and extending the catalogue of invasive species to include algae, may help to limit their distribution in the environment and protect the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems.

Report on Scientific Seminar „Ecosystem Servies in the Dialogue Between Law and the Natural Sciences: From an Ecological Category to a Legal Construct”

2026-06-30T18:50:04+02:00

Report on the Seminar on ecosystem Services held on March the 6th 2026; organised by the University Research Network on Sustainable Development Law.