ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on the legal liberalism set out in Chapter 5 in order to defend a moderate position on whether sentient animals per se are entitled to legal personhood. It argues that, with respect to sentient animals, (1) there are some aspects of legal personhood that such animals do not yet possess that the state’s agents are morally required to confer on them, and (2) the state’s agents are morally permitted to deny some aspects of legal personhood to them, even some elements that they currently possess in almost every legal system, such as protections against cruel treatment. It goes on to examine what can be said about the political and legal status of immigrants, children and severely cognitively limited adults consistent with the conclusions about animals’ legal status established in this chapter and the conclusions about their political status reached in Chapter 6.
