| Summary: | This thesis explores the potential of the concept of dignity for UK and EU animal protection law. The first part of the thesis analyses the existing legislation that aims to protect humans and animals in order to find out whether and how the concept of dignity has been used therein. It will be argued that, although dignity features prominently in the context of human rights law, it does not currently seem to play any explicit, self-standing role in the context of animal law. Instead, the latter laws are underpinned by arguments based on the perceived desirability of reducing suffering and promoting welfare in animals. The second part of the thesis therefore examines what the relevant animal laws would look like if dignity were to be used as an organising principle therein. Although many theories of dignity that were developed in the relevant literature offer valuable insights as regards to what dignity means or entails, it will be argued that the most accurate account seems to have been developed by Charles Foster. It suggests that dignity is about thriving, which will be translated into a process of self-realisation. Dignity is therefore taken to be about being and developing into yourself. The adopted account will then be applied to three areas involving animals to see how they would be affected by it: biotechnology, human-animal sexual relations, and hunting. In all these areas, the enshrinement of dignity would seem to lead to an increase in animal protection. Overall, it will be concluded that the incorporation of the notion of dignity in UK/EU animal law seems to be a logical and promising next step in the evolution of animal law. It would result in more complete substantive legal protection for animals and render the relevant legal systems more internally coherent.
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