March 17, 2025Animal Law & Policy ProgramEstrellita Amicus Life-Changing for Ecuadoran Judge
Judge Teresa Nuques of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador was shaken by amicus in Estrellita monkey case, she said. The amicus was co-authored by ALPP and the Nonhuman Rights Project.
Last month, Judge Teresa Nuques, one of nine judges of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador since 2019, visited ALPP in person to connect with Faculty Director Kristen Stilt and Rights of Nature Fellow Macarena Montes. Nuques was the Judge presiding over the Estrellita Wooley Monkey Case, and she wanted to express personally how profoundly her life was changed by the amicus brief Stilt and Montes co-authored with Steven Wise and Kevin Schneider, of the Nonhuman Rights Project. Ultimately, seven of the nine judges of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador decided to recognize Estrellita as a subject of rights protected by the rights of nature, thereby acknowledging that animal rights constitute a specific dimension of the rights of nature with its own particularities. Nuques told Stilt and Montes that before this case, and before receiving their amicus, she had given animals very little consideration, and certainly not moral or legal consideration. The amicus “shook” her. Nuques said she was shocked to learn how socially and cognitively complex wooley monkeys are, and it was no longer possible for her to see animals as mere things, or property. She worked diligently on the Estrellita case, she said. Nuques now not only lives with her first-ever animal companion, but is also committed to teaching Animal Law. “There was a Teresa before the case, and a Teresa after the case,” she said.