Carlos Andrés Contreras López Visiting Fellow

Carlos A. Contreras López holds a degree in law from the Pontifical Xaverian University (Bogotá, Colombia, 2007) and from the University of the Basque Country (San Sebastián, Spain, 2008). He wrote a Ph.D. dissertation titled “The Legal Framework of Animals in Chile, Colombia, and Argentina,” which was the first animal law Ph.D. thesis written in a law school in Spain and was published as a book in 2016. During that time, he was teaching Roman Law and Animal Law courses and coordinating six editions of the Master’s in Animal Law (both online and on-site modalities) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Since then, he has published several articles and book chapters on Animal Law in Spain and Latin America. He also translated Steven Wise’s book “Rattling the Cage” into Spanish.

Carlos A. Contreras López has also been a licensed attorney with the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB) since 2010. In 2016, he created a law firm (www.murlacontreras.com) specializing in Animal Law. He is the current President of the Barcelona Bar Association’s Commission for the Protection of Animal Rights. In 2022, he won the Lush Public Awareness Prize and the Andalusian Advocacy Award for his legal work against the Vivotecnia laboratory for animal cruelty in Spain.