ABSTRACT
In December 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) filed a petition for a common law writ of habeas corpus in the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of Tommy, a chimpanzee living alone in a cage in a shed in rural New York. Nonetheless, the NhRP argued that given the cognitive, social, and emotional capacities of chimpanzees, Tommy's confinement constituted a profound wrong that demanded remedy by the courts. As a legal strategy, petitioning for a writ of habeas corpus draws comparisons between chimpanzees and those humans who have historically been denied personhood. 'Person' and 'personhood' have meant many different things at different times to different people. In legal settings, personhood matters because it is taken to identify beings with sufficiently high moral standing to deserve protection under law. The chapter also presents some of the concepts discussed in this book.
