September 07, 2025 Program Harvard academics join call for the release of elephants from Johannesburg Zoo
The voices of two academics at the Harvard Law School will be added to the main application launched by animal welfare groups in which they are calling for the release of three elephants from the Johannesburg Zoo. The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria ordered that the academics may be added as friends of the court as they can deliver important insight into the application brought by Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and Khoi Chief Stephen Fritz. They will at a later stage ask the court to order the confinement of Lammie, Mopane and Ramadibato to be unconstitutional.
August 31, 2025 Program Harvard Law School academics seek to join court case for release of elephants from Johannesburg Zoo
Academics at the Harvard Law School are expected to apply this week to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to be added as friends of the court in the ongoing legal battle to release three elephants from the Johannesburg Zoo. Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and Khoi Chief Stephen Fritz have asked the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to order their confinement to be unconstitutional.
July 23, 2025 Program GOP Lawmakers Narrow Bid to Oppose State Livestock Regulations
Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) sponsored legislation during the 118th Congress that covered a range of agriculture products defined so broadly a Harvard Law School report warned the bill could void as many as a thousand local regulations. Hinson’s revised language [in the "Save Our Bacon Act"] narrows the scope to livestock raised for human consumption and dairy production while excluding egg-laying birds.
June 17, 2025 Program Harvard legal scholars join battle to free elephants from Johannesburg Zoo
A landmark legal bid to free three elephants from captivity in the Johannesburg Zoo has gained international traction, with heavyweight legal scholars from Harvard Law School stepping forward in support of the case. The application – brought by Animal Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and Chief Stephen Fritz – is currently before the High Court in Pretoria. Professor Kristen Stilt, the faculty director of the Brooks McCormick Jr Animal Law and Policy Program, and Dr Macarena Montes Franceschini, a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute, have formally applied to join the case as amici curiae (friends of the court), offering their expertise in animal law and public policy. Their participation is intended to help the court understand the broader societal and ethical implications of the case, especially given the elephants’ complex cognitive and emotional capacities.