Animal Law Center

About the MA programme

From its inception, the University has been committed to ensure highest quality in imparting legal education. One of the core missions of NALSAR is to produce legal professionals who are professionally competent, technically sound and socially relevant lawyers. In this regard, the University through the aforesaid Animal Law programme aims to cater to the growing need to protect animals and to impart knowledge and train the participants in the legal aspect of Animal laws.

The curriculum of the programme is tailor-made to meet the professional needs of animal welfare and rights advocates and lawyers. It includes education on legal aspects in relation to the welfare and rights of animals so that the trained professionals are well equipped to deal with legal issues. Anyone be it a lawyer or a public policy or advocacy expert who is traditionally endowed with a rational mind can perform this role in the form of an animal law professional who can serve in the capacities of public interest lawyer, animal rights activist or even a compassionate citizen.

Being India’s first dedicated Masters’ programme in Animal Protection Laws, the programme has been covered extensively in online and news media. To read more about the programme and past coverage of the programme in leading media platforms such as Times of India, Republic World and Indian Express, please click here, here and here.

Click here if you have any query about the MA or Diploma Program

The brochure can be found here

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Admissions and FAQs

The Master’s Programme will have four semesters. Each Semester will have Personal Contact Programme (PCP) sessions by the subject experts, followed by an Online session where participants will work on the research project / assignments / case studies and upload them on the dedicated web platform / submit them by email. The candidates can contact / communicate through email with the subject experts for queries, if any, on the concerned subject. Relevant course material will be uploaded on the website and can be accessed through their login id. The Self Learning Materials' (Reading Materials) printed copies will be sent to the enrolled candidates.

Direct Admission subject to fulfilment of the eligibility criteria.

The duration of the programme is two years and the maximum period for completion of the programme is four years including the year of admission. The maximum period for the candidates enrolled in the second year of M.A. Programme is two years including the year of admission to the second year M.A. Programme.

Every candidate admitted to the course shall pay the prescribed fees for the first year at the time of admission and the fee for the second year shall be paid at the beginning of the third semester. If a candidate is required to continue the course beyond the minimum duration because of his/her nonfulfillment of the prescribed requirements for the award of the M.A. Degree, he/she shall pay the Continuation Fee, as prescribed to continue their course after the minimum period.

The Animal Law Centre has in its four years of existence worked alongside experts in the field and legal luminaries to build India-specific research, undertake gap studies and sensitize and build capacity in law enforcement agencies with respect to laws, rules and regulatory framework pertaining to animal welfare and protection. The course, being offered at NALSAR University, ranked consistently in the past as one of India’s top three law schools. Accredited in A++ Grade with a score 3.60 on a 4 point scale by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), this institution of higher learning has steadfastly been recognized as amongst the top law schools of the country, a melting pot for students, faculty and staff from diverse cultures and backgrounds across the country and the globe.

Students enrolled in the programme will gain access to the academic and professional network of faculty members and guest speakers, along with access to the online legal databases and the library of the University, encompassing access to lakhs of relevant resources for participants for their study and research during the duration of the course.

The curriculum of the programme is tailor-made to meet the professional needs of animal welfare and rights advocates and lawyers. It includes education on legal aspects in relation to the welfare and rights of animals so that the trained professionals are well equipped to deal with legal issues. Anyone be it a lawyer or a public policy or advocacy expert who is traditionally endowed with a rational mind can perform this role in the form of an animal law professional who can serve in the capacities of public interest lawyer, animal rights activist or even a compassionate citizen.

Click here to apply for the programme.

To read our FAQs relating to our programme, please refer to this link

Course Structure

Semester 1

Semester 2

Semester 3

Semester 4

Our Faculty

Alokparna Sengupta

Alokparna has worked in the animal protection movement for close to a decade. She has been part of several government and scientific committees on the Indian Council of Medical Research, the CDSCO, the Central Insecticides Board, the Bureau of Indian Standards and more. She has also been part of several other stakeholder committee meetings to promote animal-friendly policies. Having obtained a Master of Science in biotechnology from Osmania University, Hyderabad, she has completed a part-time Master of Law from National Law University, Delhi.

Vivek Mukherjee

Vivek completed his Bachelor's degree in Law from NLIU, Bhopal (2015); further pursuing L.LM with a specialization in Human Rights from NLSIU, Bangalore (2016). It was during this year that he worked as a teaching assistant under Prof. M.P. Singh and Prof. M.K. Ramesh, which created an affinity towards teaching. In 2016, he joined COLS, UPES; where he taught for about a year. In 2017, he joined NALSAR. Animal Law, International Law, and Environmental Law are his areas of interest. At NALSAR, Vivek co-ordinates the Animal Law Center which creates curriculum and runs research projects on Animal Laws.

Jayasimha Nuggehalli

Jayasimha Nuggehalli is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Global Food Partners. Global Food Partners is an international consulting company that provides innovative solutions to meet the growing demand for higher welfare products – with a focus on cage-free egg sourcing and production- and to ensure long-term business profitability and sustainability. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Animal Law & Policy Program 2019-2020. Jayasimha has previously served as Managing Director of Humane Society International, India, and was involved in the expansion of the organization in Asia, Founding Director of the Animal Law Centre at NALSAR School University of Law, Hyderabad, Member of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).

Sumanth Bindumadhav

Sumanth Bindumadhav is a nature education and wildlife management professional with close to twenty years of experience in the field. Though an engineer by qualification, he started working with wildlife in the form of rescue and rehabilitation at the age of 12. After completing his graduation, he, along with two others, started running his own organisation focussing solely on institutionalising wildlife conflict response in the state of Karnataka as well as large scale education and awareness program on co-habiting with wildlife in rural parts of the state.

Gauri Maulekhi

Gauri Maulekhi is a trustee of the animal rights group, People For Animals (PFA). She is also a consultant with Humane Society International, the world's largest animal protection group.

Sonia Shad

Sonia Shad is an animal protection lawyer. She graduated with a BA.LLB (Hons) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She has worked with Mercy For Animals, The Humane Society International/ India, and other animal welfare organizations both in India and the United States. She is the founder of the Society for Non-Human Persons, the first student-run animal protection group at a Law School in India. Sonia is dedicated to the eradication of systemic forms of cruelty and has been working for animal welfare and rights since 2014.

Akansha Singh

Akansha Singh has completed her M.A. in English from the Centre for English Studies, JNU. As part of her M.A. program she wrote her dissertation on the fiction of Borges titled, “Wounds of Unfulfillment: Fragmented Narratives of Jorge Luis Borges”. She has done her B.A. (Hons) in English with minors in Sociology from Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi. Before joining NALSAR she was teaching at Ashoka University. Her areas of research and teaching interest include comparative literary studies, resistance literature, translation studies. She is currently working on a comparative cross- cultural study of nationalism in the mid- twentieth century India and Argentina.

Shreya Paropkari

Shreya Paropkari is an advocate practicing at the Hyderabad High Court. She is spearheading the cause of animals in different courts with her primary engagement being the ongoing litigations relating to the anti-cruelty laws in India. She is also a consultant at the Humane Society International India and the People for Animals, Uttarakhand. She regularly engages with the activists and students to guide the movement. She believes in advocating for policy change, building capacity to further the movement.

Guest Faculty

Gary Francion

Professor Francione received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Rochester and his M.A. in philosophy and his J.D. from the University of Virginia. He studied philosophy in Great Britain as a Phi Beta Kappa Scholar. He was articles editor of the Virginia Law Review. After graduation, he clerked for the late Judge Albert Tate, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law in New York City before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1984, where he was tenured in 1987. He joined the Rutgers faculty in 1989.

Jeff Sebo

Prof. Sebo is a Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental Studies; an Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, and Philosophy and the Director of the Animal Studies M.A. Program at New York University.Jeff Sebo works primarily in bioethics, animal ethics, and environmental ethics. He is author of Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves (Oxford University Press, 2022) and co-author of Chimpanzee Rights (Routledge, 2018) and Food, Animals, and the Environment (Routledge, 2018). He is also a board member at Minding Animals International and a mentor at Sentient Media.

Praveen Bhargav

Praveen Bhargav has been involved in wildlife conservation activities since 1982 when he co-founded a conservation group called WILPEG which focused on conservation education activities. In 1995, Praveen co-founded Wildlife First, a proactive Wildlife Advocacy group and serves as its Managing Trustee.

Siddharth Chouhan

Sidharth Chauhan holds a bachelor's degree in law from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore (July 2003–June 2008). After that, he served as a Law Clerk to the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan (as he then was) at the Supreme Court of India, New Delhi (July 2008-May 2010). Subsequently, he completed the LL.M. programme at the University of Pennsylvania (August 2010-May 2011) where he concentrated on coursework in Legal Philosophy and Constitutional Law. The next step was a teaching stint at NLSIU Bangalore (July 2011-February 2013), after which he joined NALSAR Hyderabad as an Assistant Professor in June 2013.

Sohini Mahapatra

Dr. Sohini Mahapatra, first joined the university as a Research Associate in Research Project entitled “Exploring Changing Dynamics of Children Law in India in Post Liberalization Era” sanctioned by Indian Council of Social Science Research under Centre for Child Rights in May 2016. Prior to that she has been a Visiting Faculty in the university, since February 2016. She was also one of the faculties for in the Barefoot Lawyers’ College, NLUO which is an Advanced Vocational Diploma in Paralegal Studies under UGC Community College Scheme.

Rebecca Regnery

Rebecca Regnery is the Senior Director of Humane Society International’s Wildlife Department. She is responsible for overseeing wildlife programs and campaigns, and represents the organization at international treaty and trade agreements including: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the CMS Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks (CMS Sharks MOU); the Inter-American Convention on the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles (IAC), the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), and other regional fishery management organizations.

Maneesha Deckha

Maneesha Deckha is Associate Professor at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law. Her research interests include critical animal studies, feminist theory, law and culture, animal law, and bioethics. Her work has been published in Canada and internationally. Her animal-related publications have appeared in the Hastings Women’s Law Journal, the Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society, Ethics & the Environment, the Animal Law Review, the Journal of Animal Law and Ethics, the Stanford Journal of Animal Law and Policy, Unbound: the Harvard Journal of the Legal Left, the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, and Animal Law.

Ani B Satz

Ani B. Satz, a regulatory health lawyer and philosopher, is an expert in health and disability law, policy, and ethics. Satz's work addresses some of the most important legal, social, and ethical issues of our time, including access to health care services, medical privacy, fragmentation in health care delivery, patient choice, and disability accommodation and discrimination in health care and beyond. Satz currently is serving a three-year administrative term as President-Elect, President, and Immediate Past-President of the University Senate and Chair-Elect, Chair, and Immediate Past-Chair of the University Faculty Council.

Steven Wise

Steven M. Wise has practiced animal protection law for 36 years and animal rights law for three years. He was president of the Animal Legal Defense Fund from 1985 to 1995. He has written four books, including Rattling the Cage – Toward Legal Rights for Animals (2000), Drawing the Line – Science and the Case for Animal Rights (2003), Though the Heavens May Fall – The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery (2005), and An American Trilogy – Death, Slavery and Dominion on the Banks of the Cape Fear River (2009), as well as numerous law review articles on aspects of animal rights jurisprudence.

Jessica Eisen

Jessica Eisen is Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, and was a graduate fellow of the Animal Law & Policy Program from 2015-2017. She gained her her SJD from Harvard Law School in 2019. Her dissertation focused on law and social change in the area of animal agriculture, and her fields of study include Animal Law (supervised by Prof. Kristen Stilt); Comparative Constitutional Law (supervised by Prof. Vicki Jackson); Feminist Legal Theory (supervised by Prof. Catharine MacKinnon); and Law and Social Movements (supervised by Dean Martha Minow). Jessica has previously studied at Barnard College (BA, Political Science and Human Rights Studies); The University of Toronto Faculty of Law (JD); and Osgoode Hall Law School (LLM).

Dr. Visa AJ Kurki

Dr. Visa AJ Kurki is a Finnish legal scholar and philosopher, working as Associate Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Helsinki. He completed hisPhD in 2017 at the Law Faculty of the University of Cambridge. Dr. Kukri’s doctoral dissertation on legal personhood was awarded the Yorke Prize and the Salje Medal. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and made Open Access in 2020. The book was described as “an instant classic” in the Modern Law Review, and the journal Revus devoted a symposium to it in 2021.

Will Kymlicka

Will Kymlicka received his B.A. in philosophy and politics from Queen's University in 1984, and his D.Phil. in philosophy from Oxford University in 1987. His career has focused on how democratic countries address issues of ethnic, racial and religious diversity, with a special focus on the theory and practice of multicultural citizenship. He is the author of six books published by Oxford University Press, including Multicultural Citizenship (1995), Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada (1998), and Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity (2007).

Marita Giménez-Candela

Marita’s academic specialty is the study of law in the field of legal comparison, both in classical antiquity and in today’s global society. Her interest in the legal status of animals goes back to her doctoral thesis, which dealt with the criminal treatment of slaves which is well understood to be similar to the treatment of animals. In recent years, her academic teaching and research has focused on the legal status of animals and on improving legal strategies to further animal welfare.

Paola Cavalieri

Paola Cavalieri is an independent researcher based in Milan, Italy. She is the founder and former editor of the international philosophy journal “Etica & Animali” and has published extensively on the topic of nonhuman ethics and politics. She is the author of The Animal Question: Why Nonhuman Animals Deserve Human Rights (OUP 2001) and of The Death of the Animal: A Dialogue (CUP 2009), as well as the editor of the collection of readings Philosophy and the Politics of Animal Liberation (Palgrave Macmillan 2016).