Journal articles on the topic 'Animal industry Law and legislation Europe'

Marxist Philosophy as an explanation of social reality has, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, been largely neglected. However, some philosophers have contended that it may still be relevant to explain today’s social reality. In this article, I wish to demonstrate precisely that Marxist philosophy can be relevant to understand social reality. To carry out this task, I show that Marxist philosophy of law can offer a sound explanation of Animal law in South Africa. My argument is that South African law is a superstructure that reinforces the power of the animal farming industry in South Africa. That is, the hidden purpose of the law is to benefit the industry. In order to argue for this, I present two sets of arguments. The first set argues that the law facilitates the functioning of the animal farming industry. In the second set of arguments I contend that the law socialises individuals into approving the methods of slaughtering by the animal farming industry.

Law is fundamentally anthropocentric. However, the philosophical and scientific assumptions underpinning this assume that animals lack any capacity for moral choices, identity or even sentience. In Europe there is a considerable body of animal welfare law, but the current standards of animal welfare legislation do not bridge the gap between those assumptions and scientific reality. This article explores the philosophical concepts underlying the status of animals in law in Europe and the United States and compares them to current biological science. The conclusion is drawn that there is a discrepancy between the assumptions underlying legal systems and recent biological findings. The article suggests that a modern legal approach to the relationship between man and sentient animals should depart from the idea that animals have certain fundamental rights. It then proposes an approach to fundamental rights for animals in Europe and argues why such an approach has to be treaty based.

Airline bankruptcy is a common phenomenon in Europe, especially in the last decade. A sudden interruption of operations is often the result of air carrier’s financial problems or the revoking of its operating license. The liberalization of air transport industry in Europe, along with other factors, has contributed to the increase in the number of airline bankruptcies. Consumers facing airline bankruptcies, however, are not always protected, as there are cases in which passengers were stranded abroad or not compensated because of lack of assets. The existing legal framework of the European Community does not contain any specialized provision, although there is Community legislation on the monitoring of airline finances, travellers’ rights, and insolvency proceedings. This article examines the relevant legal instruments and discusses potential amendments to legislation, such as mandatory insurance or the creation of compensation funds, in order to provide consumers with effective protection against airline insolvency.

Social enterprise lawmaking is a growth industry. In the United States alone, over the last few years, there has been a proliferation of state laws establishing specific legal forms for social enterprises. The situation is not different in Europe, where the process began much earlier than in the United States and today at least fifteen European Union member states have specific laws for social enterprise. This article will describe the current state of the legislation on social enterprise in Europe, inquiring into its fundamental role in the development of the social economy and its particular logics as distinct from those of the for-profit capitalistic economy. It will explore the models of social enterprise regulation that seem more consistent with the economic growth inspired by the paradigms of the social economy. It will finally explain why, in regulating and shaping social enterprise, the model of the social enterprise in the cooperative form is to be preferred to that of the social enterprise in the company form.

Space law is regulated largely by international treaties which have little to say regarding the use and regulation of commercial space. As the costs of access to outer space decrease and the benefits exponentially increase, more countries are seeking to support and encourage ‘NewSpace’ entrepreneurs in order to establish commercial space industries. Australia has been a minor player in the space domain, primarily through involvement with Europe and the US since the late 1960s, but its domestic legislation bears little relevance to the shape of space industry today. Australia’s neighbour, New Zealand, now wants to become a NewSpace incubator and has recently enacted legislation designed to make it a competitive host nation for launch providers. This article will compare the regulatory space regimes of these two countries to provide an assessment of the importance of domestic regulation in fostering competitive commercial space services, for countries seeking to become competitive in the commercial space race.

The European Union (EU) has greatly expanded its environmental legislation over the past two decades. This article analyzes the recent development of the REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) regulation. It uses a process-tracing technique to explore the question of how REACH was created despite signifıcant resistance from influential and well-organized industry interests and misgivings from leading European politicians and policy-makers. Examining developing coalition politics within the EU, it is argued that a relatively small coalition of green actors from EU organizations, member states, and environmental and public health advocacy groups succeeded in ensuring the development and adoption of REACH largely because the coalition included influential members from all major EU policy-making centers (the European Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament). In addition, it is argued that the implementation of REACH can have important ramiıcations for international chemical politics and policy-making outside the EU.

“Animal welfare” – is a complex concept that characterizes the physical, mental, and natural state of animals at a given time and the ability to meet their needs. Animal welfare is a hallmark of the world of quality human nutrition and innovative livestock and is the basis for the sustainable development of society. The article aims to research and analyze the legislation on cattle welfare in the EU and Ukraine, highlight their strengths and weaknesses, and introduce proposals for better implementation of Ukrainian legislation in European norms. European legislation covers the welfare of animals during their life on the farm, the welfare during transport, and the welfare of animals during slaughter. This article analyzes in detail the following legal provisions: Directive 98/58/EC on the protection of animals kept for farming purposes, Council Directive 2008/119/EU establishing minimum standards for the protection of calves, Council Regulation 1/2005 covering standards for the transport of animals, Council Regulation № 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of slaughter and ancillary recommendations such as the Council of Europe Recommendation on bovine animals and the OIE Standards for the Welfare of Dairy Cows. Currently, Ukrainian welfare legislation is represented by the Law on the Protection of Animals from Cruelty (2006) and the Law of Ukraine on Veterinary Medicine (1994). These laws do not cover the protection of animal welfare and do not meet modern requirements. In 2014, by signing an agreement with the EU on creating a deep and comprehensive free trade area, Ukraine committed to updating legislation in the animal welfare field and implementing it as much as possible to European standards. Only in 2021, a new law on veterinary medicine was adopted, which has a section on animal welfare and approved five requirements for animal welfare, but the main problem is that they came into force on 01.01.2026. Given that by 2023 the EU plans to improve its legislation in the field of animal welfare, there is a need to accelerate the implementation of the new Law on veterinary medicine in Ukraine. Also necessary are training for farmers to teach and explain new rules, develop a specific regulation with minimum standards for the welfare of cattle and cattle, review shortcomings, and organize discussions with scientists in the field of animal welfare to improve legislation, create a clear roadmap the Law.

There has been considerable recent debate about prostitution in Europe that reflects concerns about health, employment and human rights. Legal changes are being introduced in many countries. We focus on two examples in order to discuss the likely implications. A new law in The Netherlands is normalizing aspects of the sex industry through decriminalizing both workers and businesses. In Sweden, on the other hand, prostitution is considered to be a social problem, and a new law criminalizes the purchasers of sexual services in an attempt to reduce demand. Both reforms appear to have had their desired effect at one level; in The Netherlands, health and safety regulations will be introduced as in any other job, and EU sex workers gain full social, legal and employment rights; in Sweden there was initially a tenfold decrease in the numbers of women working visibly on the streets, and some workers have left the industry. However, in both countries, the new legislation has also driven some sex work underground. Many sex workers are excluded by the Dutch system and move underground to become effectively invisible to the authorities. In Sweden sex workers and their clients also become less visible in order that the latter can avoid sanction. Social and economic changes, such as increased migration and the growing use of the Internet will also render the sex industry less visible both to state regulation and to health care workers. The major problems of prostitution for the workers remain exploitation, stigma, abuse and criminalization. These are not unique to the industry, and can only be tackled effectively by the self-organization of sex workers into unions and rights groups, along with full decriminalization. An alternative vision is promised through self-organization and anti-racist actions by sex workers in Germany; normalization and workers’ rights are tackled alongside training programmes for those seeking alternatives. Policy makers throughout Europe would do well to look at their experience and not simply at the clash of legal reforms.

Private law in Europe has undergone a significant transformation during the last two decades. From a branch of law that was scarcely affected by EU legislation, it has become the object of considerable harmonisation measures to facilitate free trade and protect European citizens. Simultaneously, there has been an increased attention for ‘better regulation’ in the EU. The efforts of the European Commission to improve regulatory quality and to reduce administrative burdens for industry have promoted a regulatory environment in which formal intervention is more limited and self–regulation and co–regulation have emerged as alternatives. The University of Maastricht organized a workshop on ‘Smart Regulation of European Private Law’ in January 2013 with the aim to assess how the Smart Regulation agenda has shaped/can shape European private law; investigate the contribution of different methodological approaches to achieve ‘smart regulation’; and explore opportunities and threats for European private law, in particular in respect with developments in self–regulation and co–regulation. This report shortly summarises the discussions.

The aim of this paper is to describe the essential points of Italian and European legislation governing the use of animals in biomedical experimentation. A close look will be taken at the principles of the 3Rs, which represent the mainstay of the legal architecture based on which a correct interpretation may be drawn of the legislative documents on animal experimentation. Furthermore, this paper will address the ways in which Directive 2010/63/EU is implemented in Italian legislation on the welfare of laboratory animals. In addition to an assessment of legal issues (such as the scope of jurisdiction of supervisory authorities tasked with issuing authorizations), it will include a discussion of cases of inadequate and insufficient implementation of the requirements laid down by Directive 2010/63/EU. Both the consistency of the interpretation of national legislation with the Directive and the direct effectiveness of the Directive in national law, in which animal testing has been and still is the subject of heated debate between supporters and opponents, will be examined.

The problem of ecology is one of the most common problems of the twenty-first century. No country is immune: no country has better military equipment, no country with low inflation, no country with “perfect” legislation. The purpose of the article was to clarify legislative issues: European Union legislation was outdated, general and lacking in specificity. To address these problems, this article uses different approaches to the definition of environmental security, which makes it necessary to change the concept and the actions within which the definition is adopted. The article goes on to discuss the position of realists who argue that environmental security cannot be set because of lack of accountability “the importance” of the issue of “high” issues. Thus, the paper refers to the emergence of environmental security and its long path. This article contains the following changes and provisions: Brundtland Committee (1987), Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Habitats in Europe (1979), International Tropical Timber Agreement (1983) as well as the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (1979), the Maastricht Treaty (1992), the Hazardous Substances Directives, the impact of EU measures on the environment and the Animal Protection Directive. In addition, the article exposes Programs designed to ensure and regulate environmental safety. The report of the European Environment Agency was also reviewed and a comparative analysis of the data contained in the report and the British Broadcasting Corporation estimates was made. The authors draw attention to several directives, calling them “triumvirate”, which provide the basis for countries to regulate some environmental legislation. Almost in the end of the paper the authors pay attention to the phenomenon of environmental ethics, which is a consequence of imperfect legislation. In its conclusion, the article states that the problems that arise from the lack of accountability of legal acts of a real environmental situation occur in the member states, taking into account the special case of the European Union.

The Environmental Impact Assessment Law (EIA Law) of the People's Republic of China was adopted on 28 October 2002. It is the most progressive legislation addressing environmental issues in China to be developed over the past decade. The new EIA Law explicitly states that environmental impact assessment (EIA) is required for both new construction projects and plans. The types of plans covered by the new EIA Law include: (1) integrated plans for land use and regional development, development of drainage areas and marine areas; (2) specific plans for industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, energy, water management, transportation, urban construction, tourism and the development of natural resources. EIA for construction projects has been implemented in China for more than 20 years. Through this new EIA Law, the legal status of EIA for construction projects has been elevated from administrative legislation to State Law. EIA for plans is a type of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) where the concept of SEA is for the first time being advocated by the State at this level. This paper emphasises the legal requirements of SEA set forth by this new EIA Law, such as major purposes, key elements and procedures of EIA for plans.

AbstractThe United States has traditionally lagged behind Europe in the adoption of voluntary or legislated standards for the care and treatment of animals on farms. US federal legislation of farm animal practices is minimal, confined to aspects of livestock transport and slaughter. Although some of the livestock and poultry producer (commodity) groups wrote guidelines, codes of practice, or statements regarding the humane treatment of animals in the 1980s, these were usually very general statements of current industry practice, developed with little consultation with independent experts and involving no mechanism for encouraging or ensuring compliance by producers. However, this has changed dramatically in the last few years, with an increasing trend among US retailers to require their suppliers to adopt minimum animal welfare standards. The major chain restaurants and supermarkets are working through their trade organisations, the National Council of Chain Restaurants and the Food Marketing Institute respectively, and with the commodity groups, to develop a uniform set of standards and a national auditing program. Standards and auditing programs have already been approved for dairy cattle, laying hens and meat chickens, and for slaughter, including ritual slaughter (kosher and halal). The process of setting auditable standards is complicated by the lack of legislative underpinning, the scope of the auditing that will be required because of US farm sizes and the large distances between farms, and the varying levels of expertise of potential auditors. For these reasons, ‘engineering-based’ auditing criteria that are relatively easy to measure and to standardise are more common. There are both strengths and potential weaknesses of retail-driven rather than legislatively driven animal welfare standards. Regardless, the recent changes in the US possibly pave the way for increasing dialogue between Europe and the US on farm animal welfare issues.

Nowadays, the law is being transformed as a regulator of relations. The idea of strengthe-ning the regulatory role of technologies in the field of streamlining public relations is making much headway in the world. This trend is most pronounced in the area of regulation of private relations. The way of such access to the market as crowdfunding is becoming increasingly widespread. The issuing of the so-called secured tokens is becoming popular for both small businesses and private investors. The trust in new ways of attracting investments is condi-tioned by the applied technology - the use of blockchain as a decentralized transparent data-base management system. Under these conditions, there is such a phenomenon as the democ-ratization of property relations. Every individual receives unlimited opportunities to invest via technologies. Thus, legal scholars all over the world face the question about the role of the law and law in these relations? We believe that we are dealing with such a worldwide trend of regulating public relations as the socialization of the law. Specific examples of issuing tokens in Russia and abroad show the main global trends in the transformation of private law. The platformization of economics leads to the tokenization and democratization of property relations. In this aspect, the aim of lawyers should be to create a comfortable legal environment for the implementation of projects aimed at democratizing property relations in Russia. The socialization of private law is aimed at achieving social jus-tice and is manifested in the creation of mechanisms to protect the rights of the weak party and rules to protect private investors. Globalization requires the study of both Russian and foreign law. To confirm their hypothesis, the authors conducted a detailed analysis of the legislation of Russia, Europe and the United States to identify the norms allowing to see the process of socialization of law in the above field. The generalization of Russian and foreign experience showed that when searching for proper legal regulation, the states elect one of the policies. In some countries, direct regulation of ICOs and related emission relations are being created, in others, it is about the extension of the existing legislation to a new changing tokenization relationship. The European Union countries are seeking to develop common rules to create a regulatory environment to attract investors to the crypto industry and protect them. Asian countries are predominantly developing national legislation in isolation from one another, but most of them are following a unified course to encourage investment in crypto assets while introducing strict rules against fraud on financial markets. The emphasis on the protection of the rights of investors or shareholders, token holders by setting a framework, including private law mechanisms, can be called common to all approaches. This is the aim of private law on the way to social justice.

Public concern about the welfare of farm animals has resulted in an increasing body of legislation regulating livestock production systems. In 2003, the UK implemented two new EU Directives on Pig Welfare (Directives 2001/93/EC and 2001/99/EC), and issued revised Welfare Codes for Pigs. New Council of Europe Recommendations are also at the consultation stage. The welfare issues highlighted for current consideration within the pig sector include space allowance and floor type, environmental enrichment, tail docking, weaning age and the use of the farrowing crate. With present scientific and practical knowledge, not all of these issues have a simple resolution. From an industry perspective, the major welfare issue is the level of endemic disease and, in particular, the dramatic influence of PMWS. There are also concerns regarding potential conflicts between the different policy objectives of animal welfare, environmental protection, food safety, staff health and safety, and financial sustainability that will need to be resolved.

The extensive use of plastics and the environmental burden associated with their disposal have attracted the attention of scientists, politicians and citizens in Europe. In this frame, the EU has adopted a European Strategy for Plastics aiming, on the one hand, at reducing the use of plastic and, on the other hand, promoting their reuse in the context of a circular economy directly linked with the recently adopted Bioeconomy Strategy. Bioplastics could be an alternative to the conventional plastics, but they still have a limited share in the market. In this paper, Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), a soft computing technique for analysing complex decision-making problems, is applied to identify the factors acting as drivers or barriers towards a bio-based plastics industry, their relative importance and the interactions between them. Experts with diverse backgrounds (technical experts, policy makers, industry executives) were interviewed in order to capture their perceptions and create a collective FCM capturing the strong and the weak points of the system. The collective FCM has a total number of 38 factors, which reflect the different approaches and knowledge of the experts. Overall, the “bio-based plastics” system is influenced mainly by the following factors: “EU Legislation”, “Monomers purity”, “Properties of the product”, “Recycling potential”, “Research & Development”, “National Legislation” and “Production cost”. The effect of the most significant political, social and techno-economic factors on the potential growth of the bioplastics sector has also been examined via simulations. The analysis demonstrated that the model is affected more (is more sensitive) to shifts in technoeconomic factors.

The paper discusses formation and development of criminal legislation on the subject and subjective signs of the crime in the countries of medieval Europe within the comparative jurisprudence. The authors note that the level of culture and statehood in any society and its government bodies as a whole depends on the attitude of the society and the state to those who committed unlawful, criminally punishable acts. On the materials of criminal law in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages (Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, etc.) a strict liability was in law-enforcement practice. New states were formed during the Middle Ages. That led to the need of strengthening their authority of state power and statehood. Consequently, the state got the right to protect the interests of the individual and society, and the right to creation a new criminal legislation and its institutions. The church survived after liquidation of many public and state institutions. On the one hand, it contributed to the preservation of scientific achievements of the Ancient World. On the other hand, the church deprived science of free critical attitude to the issues under study. Philosophy and jurisprudence were based on theology. Criminal-legal institutions could be developed only in the direction, which had been approved by the church. Clearly, the idea of protecting the rights of the individual, strict liability and conditions of sanity could not be widely applied. As soon as the states were originated, strict liability was necessary to stop the blood feud and delegation of the judiciary from the society to the state. The obtained knowledge about the world and deeper understanding of the causality of what is happening facilitated the process. From the political point of view, theology (a Christian doctrine) influenced the criminal law policy in Medieval Time. The legislator regulated a range of subjects of the crime. In X - XI centuries, ancient ideas of strict liability were accepted in Europe. Crimes were divided into willful and not deliberate. The principle of the personal guilty is directly related to the subject of the crime. Murderers, rapists, thieves, swindlers and others were declared criminals. Judicial practice of many times and peoples gives us numerous examples confirming the existence of views on the animal as a subject of crime. Age limits of legal responsibility were defined as the minority, which is different from the social maturity, and sometimes old age, were considered the reason for the undisputed crime blamed of a crime to a subject. People under 14 years old could not be subjected to the death penalty, except when "malice can make up for the lack of age". The authors pay attention to the fact that the interests of healthy individuals guided medieval jurisprudence and medicine. They also regulated peculiarities of the healthy individuals’ legal capacity, presence of dementia and mental illnesses, etc. The mitigation of punishment in some cases when the fault of the subject of the crime was absent, fixing the criminal-legal significance of the motive of the crime, intent and some other subjective features in the legislation were a progress. Studies of the Medieval European States shows that the legislator at that time did not formulate general signs of the subject of the crime and did not know the criminal legal concept of strict liability. However, there was a need to solve the problem. Thus, the paper discusses the essence of the criminal legal significance of the сorpus delicti, its place in the criminal law and law enforcement practiceю. The authors used scientific literature of both foreign and Russian

This article explores the challenges faced by developing and transitional countries (For the purposes of this article, Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries now mostly in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with the exception of the Russian Federation itself, are included in the term ‘developing countries’.) in international trade in agricultural goods and other natural resource products in compliance with the normative framework of the World Trade Organisation, and in particular of the Agreement on the Application on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (‘SPS Agreement’). It details the legislative and administrative measures, as justified by ‘scientific evidence’ and ‘risk assessment’, that a WTO member may take to prevent the importation of unsafe food and animal feed, and pests and disease organisms. As well as considering the policy implications and constraints to relevant legislative reform, the article also draws on the author’s experience in biosecurity legislative review and drafting in Africa, Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia using the umbrella concept of ‘biosecurity’ to reflect on the challenges facing drafting of legislation consistent with the normative international frameworks for biosecurity. Taken into account is the impact of the SPS Agreement on the terms of food trade imposed on developing countries and the connection between international trade and environmental protection.

This paper aims to investigate Google’s role in European media sustainability. In order to understand the implication of this digital intermediary in the news industry, we have analysed all of the projects funded through Google’s DNI Fund from 2016 to 2020. After revising each report, we have classified the data available, including the full amount of money awarded, chronologically marking every new country added to the fund and all the media outlets involved in each project. We argue that Google’s role is truly beneficial for the medium and long-term sustainability of European media because it offers both financial support and a successful path for media companies to truly embrace its digital technology potential. However, it also has some added weight in terms of transparency (a key element in sustainability practice and standards) and press independence. Besides the existing correlations between the awarded countries and the changes that have affected media legislation in Europe, our findings show an alarming scarcity of information regarding both the continuity and the conditions of each funded project. Our proposed agenda for future research consists of an in-depth investigation of each beneficiary, which will entail several interviews as well as different case studies of all the participants in Europe.

An estimated 1.5–2.7 billion wild fish are caught by UK commercial sea fishing fleets annually. Most are subjected to severe stressors during capture; stunning is rare and gutting alive is common practice. Fish are recognised in UK law as sentient beings, but commercially caught wild fish are excluded from welfare protections. Animal welfare impacts in wild capture sea fisheries are therefore on a massive scale, with major potential for legislative and market-based reforms. Interviews were conducted with 18 experts working within the fishing and seafood industry, fisheries management, scientific research and animal/fish advocacy organisations. The findings reveal a significant welfare gap between societally acceptable ways to treat sentient animals and the reality of capture fisheries. The participants pointed to harms caused to fish throughout different stages of the capture process caused by combinations of variables from fishing gear and methods to biological, environmental and other factors, noting that all require mitigation. Interviews revealed that the nature of harms may be exacerbated by conservative attitudes towards brutal practices in the industry, driven by profit and efficiency and free from legal restraint. To address the welfare gap, stakeholders favour engagement with the industry to improve understanding of harms and to identify mutually beneficial and shared objectives through alleviating stressors to fish in the capture process. This empirical research is focused on UK wild capture sea fisheries. However, given the dearth of welfare legislation globally, it has significance for fishing nations and the many billions of wild sea fish captured each year around the world.

Abstract Both the United States and Canada are major exporters of pork, with market forces and consumer demand playing a more important role than legislation in defining production standards. Canadian welfare standards can be seen as intermediate between those in America and Europe, with the province of Quebec leading the way in Canada’s production of “high welfare” pork. In many other respects- such as farm size, diets, genetics and management, pig farms in Canada and the United States are very similar. What can U.S. producers learn from Canada’s experience in implementation of new welfare standards? This talk discusses Canada’s 2014 implementation of the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Pigs. The Code included multiple new requirements, including the transition to group housing for gestating sows, use of analgesics at castration and tail docking, space allowances and the provision of enrichment. Code development is overseen by the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) in cooperation with the Canadian Pork Council (CPC) and with participation of government, industry and public partners. In 2020, the Pig Code underwent a 5-year review, which resulted in eight major recommendations. Five of those recommendations will require amendments to the code and are yet to be approved. Each change illustrates a balance between economics and welfare in a highly competitive and changing industry. For example, the 2014 Code promoted adoption of group housing for sows by July 1, 2024. While integrated production systems committed to, and invested heavily in, implementation of group gestation, the cost of barn conversion and poor pork returns have been major deterrents on many farms. The CPC estimates that in 2021, 44% of Canada’s sow herd will be managed in groups. The Code review recognized that not all producers will be able to transition by 2024, and that forcing producers to convert on a strict timeline would result in a worsening of the animal’s welfare. The review recommended changing the date for implementation of group housing from 2024 to 2029. This more gradual transition will allow renovations to be part of a scheduled rebuild of an existing facility or new construction, with better long-term outcomes for producers and sow wellbeing.

In the European Union, fats and oils in foods are regulated by laws mainly set at the Union level. EU rules on nutrition and health claims are particularly relevant for some fatty acids. Contrary to structure-function claims in the US, in the EU, such claims have to be authorized before use; in the case of omega-3, along with a nutrition claim, a remarkable number of health claims have been authorised based on the essentiality of such fatty acids. Claims related to environmental, social or ethical concerns are not regulated in detail at the EU level. While claims are voluntary information, mandatory rules on labelling also apply to fatty acids, and sometimes create challenges for food businesses. Another piece of legislation, the novel food regulation, is important for new sources of oils and fats. Its scope includes determining the novel food status of foods, and, if required, submitting an application in order to obtain authorisation. Several sources of fatty acids have been authorized as novel foods. Benefits of a novel food application include legal certainty and protection of data, while costs and particularly the length of the process are the main barriers. An assessment of novel food status should also concern new technologies, such as new delivery mechanisms. While several provisions of EU law concern oils and fats, a 2019 regulation not only imposes a 2 g limit (per 100 g of fat) for trans fats not naturally occurring in animal fats, but also creates an obligation to transfer information in the supply chain.

For many decades, the private law rights of passengers against their air carriers were covered by the 1929 Warsaw Convention and its various amendments, supplemented by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Conditions of Contract and Carriage of the airlines. Air carriers and their (travel) agents administered this worldwide system through their distribution of the air travel product. Over the years, the distribution system has changed considerably: computerized reservation systems were introduced; more and more did passengers or third parties on their behalf begin to contract directly with the airline of their choice, bypassing the agent, and more and more did they do so online, electronically, from their home or office computers. Meanwhile, the Warsaw Convention was replaced by the 1999 Montreal Convention. Also, following deregulation and liberalization of the airline industry, and a concomitant decrease in the regulatory influence of IATA, consumerism entered the air travel world prompting governments and the European Union to adopt special legislation or regulation on matters such as denied boarding, flight cancellations and delays. This new form of air passenger protection has been backed up and broadened by the courts, particularly in Europe. It has been opposed by the airlines, particularly the low cost carriers. The situation today seems to have become wasteful with too much uncertainty, too many claims, and too high transaction costs for all parties involved. Lastly, electronic and digital techniques have deeply penetrated the domain of the conclusion of the contract of carriage by air. Electronically concluded contracts have now become the most common form of contracting for the non-professional traveller, that is the individual air transport user, the consumer, who contracts directly with his or her airline, using electronic and digital means to do so. These are three distinct, but interrelated issues: the contractual distribution of the air travel product; the impact of consumer law; and electronic contracting (e-commerce). Each issue will be addressed in a separate part of the article. It seems that the time has come to try to forge a new contractual deal between airlines and their passengers: global, transparent and cost efficient. This article attempts to make a contribution to this beginning debate.

The article considers the existing mechanisms of legal regulation of the impact of agricultural activities on the environment, as well as the preservation of natural resources necessary to ensure quantitative and qualitative employment in crop production and animal husbandry in agriculture. The position that the quality and level of development of agricultural production directly depends on the state of natural resources is confirmed. The generalization is made that the development of special legal regulation of greening of the norms of the domestic agrarian legislation at obvious strengthening of influence on environment of negative influence of processes of agricultural production does not lose urgency. The following proposals for improving certain provisions of the Law of Ukraine «On the Basic Principles (Strategy) of the State Environmental Policy of Ukraine for the period up to 2030» are provided. Legislative consolidation of measures is proposed: reduction of negative impact on the environment of the results of intensification of processes in agriculture; technological development of agricultural production in the field of crop production through the introduction of technologies for biologization (greening) of agriculture and ensuring the production of organic agricultural products; increasing the productivity of arable land and obtaining high and stable yields of the crop industry, provided that sufficient doses of mineral and organic fertilizers, etc. Defined as a prospect for further research – the study and borrowing from domestic legislation of best practices of legal regulation of agricultural relations in the European Union.

Bovine besnoitiosis is a cattle disease caused by a protozoan parasite called Besnoitia besnoiti. It is of serious economic concern to the cattle industry and also compromises animal welfare. For several years, it has been considered an emerging disease in some countries and regions located in the north of Europe far away from the known endemic areas in the south. This study describes the situation in the southern part of Belgium, where the parasite was recently introduced through imports of animals coming from departments of France where the disease was present. It details the detection of clinical cases as well as disease transmission features related to contacts during grazing and sales of infected cattle. A tracking and monitoring system was quickly set up and detected twelve outbreaks. Several cattle were controlled, but the lack of appropriate regulations weakens disease-management efforts. Hopefully, this predictable and silent introduction triggers the awareness of decision-makers about the need for an appropriate prevention and control policy, law enforcement, and the implementation of necessary measures to avoid bovine besnoitiosis becoming endemic in Belgium or other non-endemic countries. In addition, more proactive surveillance is required from authorities through threat analysis in the context of the risk of emergence or re-emergence of infectious animal diseases.

There is world-wide interest in disposal technologies suitable for handling farm wastes. The Northern Ireland mushroom industry generates 200,000 tonnes/year of “spent” mushroom compost waste containing excess salts (P, K, Ca) and heavy metals. Its disposal by landspreading is restricted by EU, U.K. legislation. Farmers in Europe and the United States use this waste as a soil nutrient improver, but such operations are deleterious to the environment owing to microbial loading of soil and the release of human and animal pathogens. An ideal option is to reduce salt levels and pathogen content before granulating the waste into fertilizers. Electroremediation is a novel, in situ environmental technology which utilises low voltage electrical fields to remove salts or metals in contaminated soil sites. We developed electroremediation methods for the removal of excessive salts from `spent' mushroom compost or from soils contaminated with this waste. Electroremediation of excess salts / heavy metals from the horticultural waste was carried out in an anti-corrosive electrolysis tank with a built-in central holding bay for the waste material. A thin layer of charged fluid (rain water, pH 5.5; adjusted with 0.005 n HCl) maintained over the mushroom compost waste achieved the removal of salts when electrical fields ranged from 20 to 200 V were applied across electrodes (spacing 1.5 m apart) in our investigations. Electrode saturation by H+ or OH- and thermal/alkaline front build up were minimised by flushing with cooled (15 °C) fresh rainwater circulated via peristaltic pumps. The above prototype is useful for nutrient tailoring of spent compost waste in bagged compost prior to producing commercially viable granulated fertilizers from wastes.

In recent years, the need for regulation of robots and Artificial Intelligence, together with the urgency of reshaping the civil liability framework, has become apparent in Europe. Although the matter of civil liability has been the subject of many studies and resolutions, multiple attempts to harmonize EU tort law have been unsuccessful so far, and only the liability of producers for defective products has been harmonized so far. In 2021, by publishing the AI Act proposal, the European Commission reached the goal to regulate AI at the European level, classifying smart robots as ”high-risk systems”. This new piece of legislation, albeit tackling important issues, does not focus on liability rules. However, regulating the responsibility of developers and manufacturers of robots and AI systems, in order to avoid a fragmented legal framework across the EU and an uneven application of liability rules in each Member State, is still an important issue that raises many concerns in the industry sector. In particular, deep learning techniques need to be carefully regulated, as they challenge the traditional liability paradigm: it is often not possible to know the reason behind the output given by those models, and neither the programmer nor the manufacturer is able to predict the AI behavior. For this reason, some authors have argued that we need to take liability away from producers and programmers when robots are capable of acting autonomously from their original design, while others have proposed a strict liability regime. This article explores liability issues about AI and robots with regards to users, producers, and programmers, especially when the use of machine learning techniques is involved, and suggests some regulatory solutions for European lawmakers.

ecopa, the European Consensus-Platform on Alternatives, is an international not-for-profit organisation, based in Belgium and complying with Belgian Law. It is the only quadripartite organisation that promotes the Three Rs at the European level. Ecopa brings together national consensus platforms on alternative methods. Consensus means that all parties concerned are represented, including animal welfare, industry, academia and government. Ecopa currently includes the National Platforms of 14 EU Member States (or future Member States; eight full members, namely, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, and six associate members, being the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Poland and Sweden). Ecopa also has three working groups, concerned with: a) the 6th Framework Programme of the EC for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities; b) the EC White Paper Strategy for a Future EU Chemicals Policy; and c) the formation of educational programmes on alternative methods within the EU. Ecopa is thus uniquely placed and has huge expertise to offer to the debate around political topics, including the White Paper, the 6th Framework Programme, and the 7th Amendment of the EU Cosmetics Directive. Ecopa should be considered a key stakeholder by the European Commission and Parliament, and it is essential that the views of ecopa are fully incorporated into future legislation. Recently, the ecopa working groups made a strong common statement on the Chemicals Policy White Paper and made a number of recommendations to the Commission based on scientific, practical and realistic grounds. These are to be found on the ecopa Web site ( http://ecopa.tsx.org/ or http://ecopa.vub.ac.be ).

This case focuses on marketing public policy and legislation issues in the business environment. The Commonwealth Government of Australia wants to impose mandatory warning labels for fast-food served by quick-service chainrestaurants like McDonald’s. These warnings are to appear on fast-food packaging to warn diners of the possible harms arising from consuming fast-food. This is similar to the warnings that are used in Australia on tobacco product packages. This highlights a turning point where legislators appear to be heeding calls of vocal pressure groups to curb and legislate the industry’s activities. The loudest calls have appeared in well-publicized legal cases and film documentaries like Super-Size Me. McDonald’s has been well-aware of these challenges. The company continues to respond and fight legal challenges on these points. As a result, the company has improved its supply chain, employees’ work-conditions, their treatment of animals, their stores, food and customer service to offer leaner, healthier and more upmarket products. The few vocal critics who have secured media coverage seem to rely on sensationalizing the issue — e.g., eating McDonald’s for 30 days makes you fat. They seem to ignore the results from other experiments where people who ate suitable portions of McDonald’s food for the same 30 day period actually lost weight. Other challenges that have been found to be lies in courts of law include allegations of animal cruelty, unsafe food and food that makes people obese. Yet the public continue to believe these allegations. Can the industry do more, or do something different, to change people’s minds?

Molluscan shellfish aquaculture is considered a “green” industry because of the limited presence of chemicals and risk of pathogens during farming in licensed areas, which provide a safe, nutritive and healthy food source. Moreover, the environmental impact of their production is lower than all other fish animal per unit of protein. In particular, mussels’ production was the first organized mollusk aquaculture in Europe and is now one of the most extended. Italy is the second main European producer of mussels. Taking into account the relevance of the sector, Italian Mediterranean mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) aquaculture has been considered for a life cycle assessment (LCA), from a cradle-to-gate perspective. The mussel farms were located in the northern Adriatic Sea, close to the Po River Delta, a region traditionally vocated to bivalve aquaculture. Results have shown that the growing and harvesting phases are the most critical life cycle stages (“hotspots”) due to the production and use of boats, and the great quantity of non-recyclable high-density polyethylene (HDPE) socks used during the yearly productive cycle. Several improvement potentials have been identified and estimated by means of a sensitivity analysis. Furthermore, regarding the principal exporting countries to Italy (Spain and Chile), the transport factors in an overall sustainability assessment have been considered, in order to compare the local and global mussels supply chain.

The Philippine Sailfin Lizard (Agamidae: Hydrosaurus pustulatus) is a nationally protected Philippine endemic species. It is threatened by habitat destruction, pollution and overexploitation for the domestic pet trade, yet less is known about the international component of the trade. Here we investigate the international trade in Hydrosaurus spp. (H. weberi, H. amboinensis, and H. pustulatus) with an emphasis on H. pustulatus. We analysed international seizures combined with international online sales and trade data for the United States of America (USA). The export of H. pustulatus from the Philippines has been prohibited since 1991, except under special circumstances, yet they continue to be traded internationally, and we found evidence for trade in Asia, Europe, and North America. Most of these animals, however, were declared to be captive-bred. While imports to and exports from the US consisted mostly of other species of Hydrosaurus, H. pustulatus was by far the most coveted species online, with prices significantly higher for H. pustulatus than any of the other species. While not many seizures have occurred outside the Philippines, even wild-caught individuals were found to be ‘legally’ imported to the USA – in apparent violation of the Lacey Act. We recommend H. pustulatus to be listed in CITES Appendix III, in order for countries other than the USA to have a legal basis to seize wild-caught animals trafficked from the Philippines and to monitor trade in captive-bred specimens. Further, we suggest the use of automated cross-referencing between imported species and the national protection status of the species’ native range states to ensure that legislation violations are detected at the point of import.

No estado do Rio de Janeiro, o setor cervejeiro acumula diariamente toneladas de resíduos cervejeiros, com destaque para o bagaço de malte, com índice protéico favorável ao beneficiamento do material composto para ração animal. Além de suprir a demanda do produto pelos proprietários de rebanho bovino fluminense, incentivar o beneficiamento destes itens favoreceria a eliminação do risco ambiental que os resíduos poderiam acarretar ao meio, caso fossem eliminados na natureza, e ao mesmo tempo gerar riqueza, emprego e desenvolvimento local. O objetivo geral deste trabalho foi avaliar práticas de gestão ambiental de uma fábrica de cervejas na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, e se tais práticas colaboram na existência de uma parceria com o mercado local produtor de leite. Para tal, determinou-se um estudo de caso em que foi empregado método de investigação indutivo, técnicas de observação direta intensiva, entrevistas não-padronizadas e questionários. Conclui-se que, a empresa pesquisada possui atuação ambientalmente responsável. Entretanto, não são traçados e executados com pura preocupação e responsabilidade para com a sociedade, mas, fundamentalmente elaborados em razão de aspectos econômicos e legais, como o cumprimento da legislação vigente e da redução de custos e/ou geração de receita. Palavras-chave: gestão ambiental; resíduos cervejeiros; alimentação bovina. Abstract In the State of Rio de Janeiro, the beer industry daily accumulates tons of waste beer, especially malt, which has high protein index, favourable to milling material composed for animal feed. Besides meeting the demands of the state cattle owners, encouraging the processing of these items would facilitate the elimination of environmental risk that residues in half if expunged in nature and, at the same time, it would generate wealth, employment and local development. The overall objective of this work was to evaluate environmental management practices of a plant of beer in the city of Rio de Janeiro and check whether such practices are collaborating on the existence of a partnership with the local producer of milk market. To do so, a case study was carried out, applying inductive research, direct intensive observation techniques, non-patterned interviews and questionnaires. It was concluded that the company researched has doggie environmentally responsible. However, they are not pure strokes and run with concern and responsibility towards society, but essentially drawn up by economic and legal aspects, such as the enforcement of existing legislation and the reduction of costs and/or revenue generation. Keywords: environmental management; residue of beer; bovine feed.

The right to adequate food recognised under international law provides a strong foundation for eradicating hunger and malnutrition in all nations. Uganda ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1987 and thereby committed itself to ensure the realization of the right to adequate food recognised under Article 11 of the Covenant. This study analysed the roles and capacity of duty bearers in the realization of the right to adequate food in Uganda. Structured interviews were held with purposefully selected duty bearers from 11 districts in the country between February and July 2007. Districts were selected by criterion based sampling. Relevant policies, budgets, and legislation were also reviewed, particularly with state obligations on human rights, and capacity of duty bearers in mind. Although this right is expressly recognised in the Food and Nutrition Policy of 2003 in which a multi-sectoral approach is proposed, sector-specific roles are not explicitly defined in Uganda’s institutional and policy framework. Most duty bearer (63%) considered the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) as being responsible for the delays in implementing the relevant actions for the right to food. The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) reported receiving inadequate budget resources to support the right to food. Only 20% of duty bearers had knowledge of the General Comment 12, which is an important United Nations instrument that defines and elaborates on the human right to adequate food. Duty bearer’s knowledge of the right to food in the national Constitution had a significant (X2 = 0.003; P<0.05) positive correlation (R=0.283) with membership status to an ad hoc Uganda Food and Nutrition Council (UFNC). A proposed Food and Nutrition Bill had taken over 10 years without being presented to the National Parliament for the process of enactment into law. As such, most of the support for this right came from development partners. Whereas the ministry of health and MAAIF are line ministries in the implementation of food and nutrition policy, the right to food roles of the various duty bearers in Uganda need to be well defined. Capacity development is also needed, particularly related to integrating right to food sector-specific roles into the theoretical development and practical implementation of food and nutrition security programmes at all levels in the country.

Hazardous waste is a trigger of the environmental crisis, especially at the stage of increasing production and consumption of goods, leading to a significant increase in industrial waste and its movement across customs borders. The cross-border movement of hazardous waste is controlled by the state, customs authorities are entrusted with the tasks of protecting national security, human life and health, animal and plant life, the environment, including protection against the illegal import of hazardous waste. The transboundary movement of hazardous wastes is carried out within the framework of the permissive procedure. Such a unified licensing procedure has also been adopted in the EAEU with respect to the import into the customs territory, transit, export from the customs territory of dangerous wastes. This procedure assumes that the declarant submits to an official of the authorized body a license of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation or a permit for the transboundary movement of hazardous waste of the Federal Service for Supervision of Environmental Management. However, despite the efforts of the international community in the fight against hazardous waste, the dynamics of illegal movement of certain types of waste continues to grow, which indicates the existence of a number of unresolved problems. In the course of the study, the conceptual and categorical apparatus in the field of hazardous waste is analyzed, the main provisions of the procedure for moving this category of goods across the customs border of the EAEU are considered. The basis for national legislation in terms of the conceptual apparatus and regulation of the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes through the customs territory of the EAEU is the norms of international law, while a comparative analysis confirms the ambiguity of their recognition and classification in the EAEU member states. The analysis of the dynamics of the movement of hazardous waste, including used pneumatic tires and tires, showed that every year the problems of environmental protection become more acute. As a result of the study, specific problems in the field of transboundary movement of hazardous wastes were identified and recommendations for their solution were given.

Hazardous waste is a trigger of the environmental crisis, especially at the stage of increasing production and consumption of goods, leading to a significant increase in industrial waste and its movement across customs borders. The cross-border movement of hazardous waste is controlled by the state, customs authorities are entrusted with the tasks of protecting national security, human life and health, animal and plant life, the environment, including protection against the illegal import of hazardous waste. The transboundary movement of hazardous wastes is carried out within the framework of the permissive procedure. Such a unified licensing procedure has also been adopted in the EAEU with respect to the import into the customs territory, transit, export from the customs territory of dangerous wastes. This procedure assumes that the declarant submits to an official of the authorized body a license of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation or a permit for the transboundary movement of hazardous waste of the Federal Service for Supervision of Environmental Management. However, despite the efforts of the international community in the fight against hazardous waste, the dynamics of illegal movement of certain types of waste continues to grow, which indicates the existence of a number of unresolved problems. In the course of the study, the conceptual and categorical apparatus in the field of hazardous waste is analyzed, the main provisions of the procedure for moving this category of goods across the customs border of the EAEU are considered. The basis for national legislation in terms of the conceptual apparatus and regulation of the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes through the customs territory of the EAEU is the norms of international law, while a comparative analysis confirms the ambiguity of their recognition and classification in the EAEU member states. The analysis of the dynamics of the movement of hazardous waste, including used pneumatic tires and tires, showed that every year the problems of environmental protection become more acute. As a result of the study, specific problems in the field of transboundary movement of hazardous wastes were identified and recommendations for their solution were given.

Ukraine, choosing its strategic course of integration into the European Union, took the time to accelerate the reform of various spheres of socio-political and economic life of the country, in particular, the sphere of tourism services, transforming it into the standards of the European Union. The world-wide experience of progressive management gives tourism the first place among other sectors of the economy in terms of exports of goods and services. In conditions of development of the Ukrainian state, tourism becomes an effective means of forming a market mechanism of management, the receipt of significant funds to the state budget, one of the forms of rational use of free time, conducting meaningful leisure, studying the history of the native land, attracting the general population to the knowledge of the historical and cultural heritage. Current experience and scientific research show that accelerated development of rural green tourism can play the role of a catalyst for structural adjustment of the economy, provide demographic stability and solve urgent socio-economic problems in rural areas. It is important for Ukraine to overcome the gap in this area and realize the existing rich tourism potential through an elaborate policy of state regulation, including at the regional level. One of the reasons for the rapid development of rural green tourism in Europe is the crisis in the agricultural sector. Today, the process of productivity and automation of agriculture leads to jobs reduction. In fact, in many rural regions of Europe, agriculture has ceased to be the most important form of land use and the most important activity of the rural community. The rural green tourism is closely linked with other types of tourism, primarily with recreational, cultural, specialized tourism types – relief, gastronomy, ethno-tourism, etc. All this allows rural tourism to be included in combined tours, increasing the demand for a traditional tourist product. The rural green tourism in Ukraine is a holiday of the inhabitants of the city in the countryside in guest rooms created by a village family on the basis of its own residential house and private plot. As entrepreneurial activity, rural green tourism develops rather heterogeneously in different regions of Ukraine. Systematization of motivational interests of the rural green tourism activation in the regions of Ukraine showed that the dominant motives for diversification of activities in agricultural sector in the current conditions of rural areas development are: increase of incomes of rural population and increase of employment level, the possibility of diversification of income sources of peasants, significant investments and additional training, opportunities for self-realization of rural inhabitants. Priority directions of development of green tourism in these regions in the near future should be: reception and accommodation of tourists; rental of tourist equipment; production and sale of tourist goods of folk crafts; provision of tourist services (bicycle, gastronomy, agrotourism, cultural and historical tourism, organization of recreational recreation, mountain and ecological tourism); organization of tasting and culinary excursions; active development of the hotel business, camping (construction of agricultural cottages, fishing houses, farmhouses, horse farms); organization of historical and ethnographic events; distribution of religious tours; providing a complex of widely distributed services (fishing, hunting, picking berries and mushrooms, medicinal plants, etc.); development and popularization of water sports (kiting, windsurfing). The research of the current conditions for the development of green tourism in the regions of Ukraine allowed to outline the area of the key problems that hinder the active expansion of this type of activity: - disorderly legislation on key aspects of tourism business regulation in rural areas; lack of a law regulating this type of activity; - low level of development of the infrastructure of the market of green tourism services and social infrastructure of the village; - outdated stereotypes of rural residents, which hinder the active development of the newest types of tourism industry, the pronounced unsystematic and irregular nature of services; - absence of state programs supporting development of green tourism and limited amount of their financial, consulting and information-marketing support; - low level of informatization and popularization of green tourism in the regions of Ukraine among the population of European countries; - lack of political stability and social tension in society, deterioration of the world image of Ukraine. Thus, Ukraine has a rather powerful potential for the development of green tourism as an alternative type of agribusiness in the regions of Ukraine. In the context of modern economic conditions, solving key problems of development of green tourism forms the fundamental framework for addressing the most important socio-economic issues of rural areas: overcoming unemployment, promoting employment, raising incomes and quality of life for rural inhabitants.

Current political and legal conditions caused by the medical reform implementation, transformation of legislation, and increased activity of patients to protect their rights, have given rise to the need to find the best forms, methods and means of protecting human rights in the field of medical care. The Council of Europe recommends the governments of member states to ensure that patient safety becomes a cornerstone of all relevant healthcare strategies and defines that, while people can make mistakes in all areas of activity, they can turn those mistakes to experience in order to prevent their repeating, and medical professionals and medical organizations that have reached a high level of security have the potential to recognize errors and learn to avoid them. Given the risky nature of the provision of medical care, it is not always possible to achieve the desired result, as well as the inadequate provision or non-provision of medical care can be harmful to the patient's life and health. According to the practice of law enforcement and the current state of development of these relationships, the patients themselves are more vulnerable and their rights are most often being violated. Given the modern period of medical and legal practice implementation, attention should be drawn to arbitration as an out-of-court jurisdictional form of protecting the subjects’ to legal relations rights in the provision of medical care. Although the arbitral tribunal does not belong to the judicial system, while being a quasi-judicial authority; however, this form is considered to be jurisdictional, since it is a special non-governmental authorized body created to resolve disputes arising from civil and commercial relations. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine notes that the arbitration of disputes between the parties in the field of civil and commercial relations is a kind of non-governmental jurisdictional activity, which arbitration courts conduct on the basis of the laws of Ukraine, including, in particular, the methods of arbitration. In performing the functions of protection, arbitral tribunals do not exercise justice, but arbitration of disputes. The peculiarity of this method of protection is that, on the one hand, it has similar features with state justice (for example, in the aspect of the adoption of binding decisions), but at the same time it is similar with extrajudicial forms of non-jurisdiction, as, in particular, mediation (however, there is a significant difference between them: the mediator does not make decisions, but only contributes to the decision making by the parties). One of the major issues in the scope of the study is the question of the possibility of referring subjects to medical legal relations medical to an arbitration tribunal to resolve disputes arising from the provision of medical care. The criteria for the jurisdiction of arbitration courts include: a) the nature of the controversial legal relationship: arbitration court subordinate cases of civil and commercial relations; b) the subjects of controversial legal relations: legal entities and/or individuals; c) the existence of an arbitration agreement between the parties to the dispute. Novadays, both in national and foreign legal practice, medical arbitrations have been established and operate. In 2009, the first and only Permanent Court of Arbitration was established at the All-Ukrainian Public Organization "Foundation for Medical Law and Bioethics of Ukraine". The purpose of this specialized court is to ensure fair, speedy and effective arbitration of disputes arising from healthcare legal relations and reconciliation of parties to the dispute. However, this court has not yet considered a case due to a number of factors, such as: 1) the lack of legal awareness of the subjects to medical legal relations regarding the possibility of resolving the case through an arbitration court; 2) low level of legal culture of subjects of legal disputess, generating judicial way of disputes resolution as the only possible option; 3) the introduction of amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Arbitration Courts" in the aspect of excluding from the jurisdiction of arbitration courts disputes related to the protection of consumer rights, including those in the sphere of medical services. The experience of foreign countries in this aspect is positive. Thus, Arbitration Court for Health Insurance and Health, which is a specialized arbitration in healthcare issues, operates at the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It is a self-standing permanent authority that resolves disputes arising from civil legal relations between actors and participants in the health insurance system and the healthcare system in St. Petersburg. In the United States, there is the Federal Arbitration Law that encourages the use of arbitration in all matters, if the agreement contains a clause on arbitration. Most states have adopted relevant legislation that regulates health arbitration and imposes special requirements for arbitration agreements. National Medical Arbitration Commission under the Ministry of Health, which exercises medical arbitration and aims to resolve disputes between a doctor and a patient using alternative ways of resolving conflicts, operates in Mexico. All employees and experts are fully funded at the expense of state budget. The Commission is an official body authorized to provide, at the request of judges, expert opinions, which may in future be the basis for judgements. In order to resolve a dispute, whether through the application of a conciliation procedure or arbitration, both parties need to agree that the case would not be tried in court and that the purpose of the Commission's work is not limited to imposition legal liability to a doctor. The Commission is not a judicial body, therefore, it cannot impose penalties, but only gives the parties the opportunity to make reparations under contract. Taking into account the above, the institute of medical arbitration in Ukraine is worth implementation, as the number of medical cases increases and more and more individuals apply for the protection of violated rights in healthcare system. Advantages of resolving disputes that arise in the provision of medical care in arbitration courts are: 1) simplification of the trial procedure; 2) short terms of consideration of the case; 3) possibility of choosing a judge; 4) preservation of confidentiality; 5) freedom to establish rules of arbitration; 6) voluntary involvement in the arbitration process; 7) synthesis of discretion, which is covered by the review procedure, and the imperativeness due to the binding decision of the parties. Functions of medical arbitration are the following: a) protective: protection of rights of subjects of legal relations in the field of medical assistance; b) controlling: it is the component of healthcare quality management system; c) educational: enhancement of legal culture and legal awareness of the subjects of medical legal relations, as well as promotion of confidence in arbitration proceedings. Taking into account foreign experience and national legal regulation, and according to the specific nature of legal relations in the field of medical assistance and the task of arbitration proceedings in defense of non-proprietary rights, it would be advisable to make modifications to reduce the scope of subordinate prohibitions for arbitration, in particular, in cases concerning disputes in the field of consumer rights protection, identifying only those categories that would be banned (the cases for medical services consumers’ rights protection should not fall into scope of such limitation), as well as conducting spectral work on increasing the authority of the arbitration proceedings and the level of competence of arbitrators. Also, it should be noted that tort cases can be subject to arbitration in case entering into agreements (arbitration agreements) between the creditor and the debtor in order to achieve the purpose of the obligation: the reimbursement of the harm done to the victim.

AbstractObjective: Review of animal cloning legislation (legal restrictions) and its potential impact on the competitiveness of the European biotech industry.Material and methods: Review and comparison of enacted and pending international legislation on animal cloning techniques (US and EU), analyzing materials obtained by database searches and direct contact with EU and US officials. Market prices on therapeutic hormones were provided by Apoteksbolaget, Sweden. The estimations for the production capacity of transgenic animals are based on information from Genzyme USA, and include results obtained from a review of international articles on animal cloning.Results: Recent scientific and technological progress in modern cloning techniques holds promise to be able to produce an increased amount of cheaper human therapeutics (growth hormone, factor IX, etc.) in the near future. Animal cloning restrictions, as recently introduced in Holland, could thus, if spread to other EU Member States, have a stigmatizing effect upon these developments. This, of course, would have serious implications for the competitiveness of the European biotech industry, reducing the expected employment potential in this field. The European situation can be usefully compared with the developments in the US, where no animal cloning restriction is foreseen in the currently debated US cloning legislation, which refers exclusively to human cloning restrictions. A relocation of the European biotech industry to the US has already been reported on, a process that would, if continued, subsequently diminish the European potential for influencing future developments in the area.

The current U.S. patent system is considered to provide the broadest patent protection of all patent systems in existence, especially with respect to the biotechnology industry. Advances in science and technology have been key contributors to the growth and development of legislation controlling patent law. With these advancements have come vivid public debates on the morality of research with embryonic stem cells and the fusion of human and animal DNA to find cures for disease. Despite the rapid developments, the legislation controlling such research has been slow to progress. This paper will explore the legislative history surrounding biotechnology patents, focusing on the specific need for strong, adequate protection to promote the survival of the biotechnology industry.

International standards exist in any field of legal regulation however, they are mostly identified with standards that regulate the technical sphere, since they are the most common ones. Nonetheless, today it is hard to imagine any area of public life withno generally recognized international standards. European legal standards are formed within the framework of the two most regional international associations –the Council of Europe and the European Union. The Council of Europe sets, first of all, standards in the humanitarian sphere: human rights, environment protection, and constitutional law, which is determined by the goals and purpose of its functioning. The European Union (hereinafter referred to as the EU) using directives, regulations, and other legal acts sets standards for most areas of the EU population's life. It should be noted it is during the development of 'standardization' in the European law that specific development of public relations in the EU takes place. Defining the EU legal standardas a separate category of norms of the European law, it is noteworthy that this term is used in a broad sense as a 'legal standard' and incorporates such elements as the general principles of the EU law and the 'common values' of the EU –they relate to people, environment, economic issues, and so on. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 is a classic example of their implementation. In a narrow sense, this term has a specific meaning and does not coincidewith the concept of 'legal standard', e.g. these are standards in the technical field that are adopted by the European Committee for Standardization, that is, in its content, it is a technical publication that is used as a norm, rule, guide or definition.Therefore, they relate to products, services, or systems and are the basis for convergence and interaction within the growing market of various business sectors. Today, in international law de facto there is a system of standards that regulate various aspects of international relations.

Beginning with the Treaty of Amsterdam and then later with the Treaty of Lisbon (TFEU), Europe has more than once formally recognized nonhuman animals as sentient beings. This recognition spurred the creation of regulations that provide for the protection and promotion of animal welfare. However, this protection seems to contain many exceptions, particularly regarding the consideration from which these regulations stemmed: the recognition of animal sentience. In this paper, I argue that the regulations generated by this legislation, far from being aimed at improving the living conditions of nonhuman animals used by the human animals, are actually put in place in order to obtain additional benefits for humans. These benefits include, but are not limited to, the reduction of zoonotic diseases (in the case of nonhuman animals being used for breeding), and the improvement in predictability of animal models (in the case of nonhuman animals being used for experimental purposes). While the rhetoric of these laws seems to endorse the protection and welfare of animals as sentient beings, they actually allow for their enslavement and objectification. In the end, the credibility of Europe’s acknowledgement of animal sentience is greatly hampered by the institutionalization of very cruel practices allowed by animal welfare regulations.

Background: Creating new therapies often involves drug companies paying healthcare professionals and institutions for research and development (R&D) activities, including clinical trials. However, industry sponsorship can create conflicts of interest (COIs). We analysed approaches to drug company R&D payment disclosure in European countries and the distribution of R&D payments at the country and company level. Methods: Using documentary sources and a stakeholder survey we identified country- regulatory approaches to R&D payment disclosure. We reviewed company-level descriptions of disclosure practices in the United Kingdom, a country with a major role in Europe’s R&D. We obtained country-level R&D payment data from industry trade groups and public authorities and company-level data from eurosfordocs.eu, a publicly available payments database. We conducted content analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. Results: In 32 of 37 studied countries, all R&D payments were reported without named recipients, following a self-regulatory approach developed by the industry. The methodological descriptions from 125 companies operating in the United Kingdom suggest that within the self-regulatory approach companies had much leeway in deciding what activities and payments were considered as R&D. In five countries, legislation mandated the disclosure of R&D payment recipients, but only in two were payments practically identifiable and analysable. In 17 countries with available data, R&D constituted 19%-82% of all payments reported, with self-regulation associated with higher shares. Available company-level data from three countries with self-regulation suggests that R&D payments were concentrated by big funders, and some companies reported all, or nearly all, payments as R&D. Conclusion: The lack of full disclosure of R&D payments in countries with industry self-regulation leaves considerable sums of money unaccounted for and potentially many COIs undetected. Disclosure mandated by legislation exists in few countries and rarely enhances transparency practically. We recommend a unified European approach to R&D payment disclosure, including clear definitions and a centralised database.

Plant-based meat-like food is increasingly popular, and the meat industry has been opposing the use of terms traditionally used for meat and meat products for plant-based alternatives. Against this background, on 29 June 2022 the Government of France adopted Decree No. 2022-947 on the use of certain names used to designate foodstuffs containing vegetable proteins1 (hereinafter, Decree No. 2022-947), which prohibits the use of names designating foodstuffs of animal origin to be used to describe, market or promote foodstuffs containing vegetable proteins. This article discusses the new French legislation and looks at the situation at the European Union (EU) level where, differently from dairy terms such as “milk” and “yoghurt”, “meaty” terms such as “burger” and “sausage” are not reserved for meat and meat products. France has become the first EU Member State to impose such a ban, while the EU rejected in 2020 a similar proposal that would have resulted in EU-wide restrictions.

New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) are any non-animal-based approaches that can provide information in the context of chemical hazard and safety assessment. The goal is to develop information with equivalent or better scientific quality and relevance than that provided by traditional animal models. Starting with ethical issues, these approaches are gaining regulatory relevance in different global agencies. Since 2008, with the enactment of the Arouca Law—the first Brazilian legislation dedicated to laboratory animals, NAMs are gathering pace in Brazil’s regulations. Specific regulations from different sectors include the acceptance of these new methods. However, some regulation is controversial about what is needed to address specific toxicological endpoints. The resulting regulatory uncertainty induces companies to keep on adopting the traditional methods, slowing NAM’s development in the country. This work brings a perspective on the regulatory acceptance of NAMs in Brazilian Legislation for the registration of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food/supplements, and agrochemical products. This text discusses the main issues of NAM adoption for each specific regulation. Therefore, legal acceptance of NAMs results in Brazil is still a process in progress. A collective effort including regulators, industry, contract research organizations (CROs), and the academic environment is needed to build regulatory confidence in the use of NAMs.

The article focused on the obligation to compensate for damage caused by animals as a type of the attractions. Given the evolution of the entertainment industry, attractions with the use of farm and wild animals are becoming increasingly popular. Along with new emotions from the attractions with animals, such entertainment carries significant risks of harm. The obligation to compensate for such damage caused by animals goes back to the historical depths that we will cover in our article. The first historical mention of the harm caused by animals in the Laws of Hammurabi is investigated. It was established that the first known animal that caused damage, which was subject to compensation, was an ox, and the person responsible for the damage was its owner. It is established that the mention of the damage caused by domesticated animals is contained in the Laws of Dadusha. Such animals were identified as an ox and an aggressive dog. It was investigated that the main function of the obligations to compensate for the damage caused by animals was the compensatory function. It was investigated that the laws of the Hittites also contained a rule governing compensation for damage caused by the animal. The norm provided for compensation for damage to property. The provisions of the Torah, in particular the Code of the Covenant, which established liability for damage caused by animals, are analysed. It is established that the Torah contains provisions that can be considered prototypes of modern norms governing liability for the damage caused by a source of increased danger. The characteristic features of the legislation that was in force before our era, which regulated the compensation for damage caused by animals, are summarized. The provisions of the Laws of the Draco of Athens and Solon, which were in force in Greece in the period from 621 to 594 BC, are studied. The provisions of the Law on Combating Harm Caused by Animals are analysed. The provisions of the legislation of the period of the Roman Empire, which regulated the compensation for damage caused by animals, are analysed. The concept of the term «four-legged animal» and the principle of «harm to the animal» according to Roman law are studied. The provisions of the principle of responsibility of the «mule driver» are analysed. The provisions of the current legislation of Ukraine regulating liability for damage caused by animals are studied. The etymology of the terms «beast» and «animal» are analysed. It is summarized that the animal should understand the subclass of mammals, only part of the classification of animals. The concept of «wild animal» is analysed. Own classification of wild animals is offered. A proposal was initiated to replace the term «keeping of wild beasts» in the Civil Code of Ukraine with the term «keeping of wild animals». A distinction between wild and domestic animals are analysed. The functioning of the Unified State Register of Animals has been studied. It is proposed to improve the activities of the register by entering information about animals used in the activities of attractions. The own definition of the term «attraction animal» is offered.

AbstractPrior to registering and marketing any new pharmaceutical, (agro)chemical or food ingredient product manufacturers must, by law, generate data to ensure human safety. Safety testing requirements vary depending on sector, but generally repeat-dose testing in animals form the basis for human health risk assessments. Dose level selection is an important consideration when designing such studies, to ensure that exposure levels that lead to relevant hazards are identified. Advice on dose level selection is provided in test guidelines and allied guidance documents, but it is not well harmonised, particularly for selection of the highest dose tested. This paper further builds on concepts developed in a technical report by the European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC) which recommends pragmatic approaches to dose selection considering regulatory requirements, animal welfare and state of the art scientific approaches. Industry sectors have differing degrees of freedom to operate regarding dose level selection, depending on the purpose of the studies and the regulatory requirements/legislation, and this is reflected in the overall recommended approaches. An understanding of systemic exposure should be utilised where possible (e.g., through toxicokinetic approaches) and used together with apical endpoints from existing toxicity studies to guide more appropriate dose level selection. The highest dose should be limited to a reasonable level, causing minimal but evident toxicity to the test animals without significantly compromising their well-being. As the science of predictive human exposure further develops and matures, this will provide exciting and novel opportunities for more human-relevant approaches to dose level selection.

Dairy animal welfare is of growing interest around the world, especially in developed countries, which have animal welfare programs and resources to establish optimal management systems for cows and understand that animal welfare is the foundation of innovative dairy farming. The article, based on the analysis, synthesis and generalization of world research and the results of own scientific expert assessment of animal welfare identifies the main problems of animal welfare on dairy farms, considers methods of assessing animal welfare in the world and substantiates the importance of implementing welfare programs and management protocols in dairy farming. Thus, in dairy farming, animal welfare is an important component based on world regulations. The analysis of regulations requires an understanding of the legislative aspects of different levels and examples of best practice: a) EU directives and practices, b) directives and practices of each European country c) national directives of non-EU countries, which must take into account all three legislative features. It has been shown that the EU has implemented a number of animal welfare acts, compromises between dairy producers and consumers on a number of instruments to harmonize law enforcement through audit, training, scientific expertise and consulting, and contributes to the stability of the EU food chain. In Ukraine, it is important to harmonize legislation with European Union norms and create a system for assessing the welfare of dairy animals, as well as information and educational activities and training on animal welfare on dairy farms for stakeholders and practical approaches to implementing animal welfare in production. We launched the European approach "Signals of cows" within the Ukrainian-Dutch project "Dairy farm", which allowed to work out the basic aspects of animal welfare in research farms NULES. In 2021, a new law on veterinary medicine was adopted, which implements 14 EU acts and includes a section on animal welfare, which is already a big step forward and opens new opportunities. However, in addition to the provisions on the welfare of calves (harmonization with Regulation 98/58 EC) do not consider regulations on the welfare of the dairy herd, which is not enough to develop the dairy industry in a global transformation. The article presents the basic indicators of welfare of cows, which are used in European countries and which we use in expert assessments. However, systemic data to assess the welfare of cows is not enough, because it is in the plane of consulting, which does not allow the analysis of the welfare of cows. In the context of globalization, the basic problem of animal welfare on dairy farms is the intensification, so the main welfare assessment programs (FARM, The Code of welfare, Welfare Quality and IDSW), which are widely used in milk production in accordance with current animal welfare standards. Intensification of animal husbandry, which provides greater economic efficiency, poses many threats to animal health and remains one of the biggest problems of animal welfare. The desire for profit reduces the ability to implement the principles of sustainable development. We consider it expedient to develop and implement programs for assessing the welfare of cows in Ukraine. So in the EU there is a voluntary WQ program that certifies producers and aims to meet the needs of society, develop a reliable monitoring system on farms and improve the welfare of cows in general. In New Zealand, the Code of welfare has been implemented, which forms awareness of farmers and care for animal welfare. Almost 98% of US farms are members of the FARM (USA) program, which is positioned as a voluntary program and a number of others. Thus, despite the fact that dairy farming is one of the strategic sectors of animal husbandry in Ukraine, the welfare of dairy farms is insufficiently studied and covered. In the perspective of research, it is important to analyze the experience of other countries in this area and the introduction of a system of welfare assessment, as well as the development and implementation of protocols on animal welfare in Ukraine based on the concept of "Five Freedoms". It is important to raise the awareness of stakeholders and officials to ensure proper compliance with EU animal welfare rules, taking into account national, regional and local networks, different support and understanding of the target audience (both farmers and producers, civil servants, scientists and educators, etc.). Also a priority is research on animal welfare, as well as the development of modern approaches to the legal provision of animal welfare, which will improve animal welfare. Thus, in order to ensure a high level of welfare of cows in relation to world standards of animal welfare, the priority is to assess the welfare of cows, improve the legal framework in Ukraine, further research in this area, implementation of effective programs to control the welfare of dairy animals.

With the current global warming crisis and contemporary concerns for sustainability, the transport industry is developing and implementing novel solutions to reduce greenhouse gases. With close to 90% of the world’s goods relying on maritime transportation, responsible for 3% of global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2019, there is a vital emphasis on reducing emissions. The latest legislation from the International Maritime Organisation has imposed even tougher sulphur oxide targets. On the other hand, emission intensity for CO2 will need to be decreased by 70% in 2050, compared to 2008 figures. While operating measures and fuel alternatives are suitable in the short-term to meet these novel regulatory constraints, as the use of fossil fuels tapers off, the long-terms solution appears to reside in wind-assisted ships. Consequently, this study aims to identify viable solutions that could reduce emissions, focussing on three prominent technologies, namely sails, rotors and kites. Furthermore, this review provides guidance on the benefits and risks associated with each technology and recommends guidelines for performance prediction and associated constraints. Ultimately, future stakes in wind-assisted propulsion are highlighted, including the need for full-scale validation, the challenge in assessing environmental and economic impact, and the structural issues associated with wind-assisted propulsion systems.

Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur on Unsplash ABSTRACT The UK-based campaign group Scrap Factory Farming has launched a legal challenge against industrial animal agriculture; the challenge is in the process of judicial review. While a fringe movement, Scrap Factory Farming has already accrued some serious backers, including the legal team of Michael Mansfield QC. The premise is that factory farming is a danger not just to animals or the environment but also to human health. According to its stated goals, governments should be given until 2025 to phase out industrialized “concentrated animal feeding organizations” (CAFOs) in favor of more sustainable and safer agriculture. This paper will discuss the bioethical issues involved in Scrap Factory Farming’s legal challenge and argue that an overhaul of factory farming is long overdue. INTRODUCTION A CAFO is a subset of animal feeding operations that has a highly concentrated animal population. CAFOs house at least 1000 beef cows, 2500 pigs, or 125,000 chickens for at least 45 days a year. The animals are often confined in pens or cages to use minimal energy, allowing them to put on as much weight as possible in as short a time. The animals are killed early relative to their total lifespans because the return on investment (the amount of meat produced compared to animal feed) is a curve of diminishing returns. CAFOs’ primary goal is efficiency: fifty billion animals are “processed” in CAFOs every year. The bioethical questions raised by CAFOs include whether it is acceptable to kill the animals, and if so, under what circumstances, whether the animals have rights, and what animal welfare standards should apply. While there are laws and standards in place, they tend to reflect the farm lobby and fail to consider broader animal ethics. Another critical issue applicable to industrial animal agriculture is the problem of the just distribution of scarce resources. There is a finite amount of food that the world can produce, which is, for the moment, approximately enough to go around.[1] The issue is how it goes around. Despite there being enough calories and nutrients on the planet to give all a comfortable life, these calories and nutrients are distributed such that there is excess and waste in much of the global North and rampant starvation and malnutrition in the global South. The problem of distribution can be solved in two ways: either by efficient and just distribution or by increasing net production (either increase productivity or decrease waste) so that even an inefficient and unjust distribution system will probably meet the minimum nutritional standards for all humans. This essay explores four bioethical fields (animal ethics, climate ethics, workers’ rights, and just distribution) as they relate to current industrial agriculture and CAFOs. l. Animal Ethics Two central paradigms characterize animal ethics: welfarism and animal rights. These roughly correspond to the classical frameworks of utilitarianism and deontology. Welfarists[2] hold the common-sense position that animals must be treated well and respected as individuals but do not have inalienable rights in the same ways as humans. A typical welfare position might be, “I believe that animals should be given the best life possible, but there is no inherent evil in using animals for food, so long as they are handled and killed humanely.” Animal rights theorists and activists, on the other hand, would say, “I believe non-human animals should be given the best lives possible, but we should also respect certain rights of theirs analogous to human rights: they should never be killed for food, experimented upon, etc.” Jeremy Bentham famously gave an early exposition of the animal rights case: “The question is not Can they reason?, nor Can they talk?, but Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being?” Those who take an animal welfare stance have grounds to oppose the treatment of animals in CAFOs as opposed to more traditional grass-fed animal agriculture. CAFOs cannot respect the natural behaviors or needs of animals who evolved socially for millions of years in open plains. If more space was allowed per animal or more time for socialization and other positive experiences in the animal’s life, the yield of the farm would drop. This is not commercially viable in a competitive industry like animal agriculture; thus, there is very little incentive for CAFOs to treat animals well. Rampant abuse is documented.[3] Acts of cruelty are routine: pigs often have teeth pulled and tails docked because they often go mad in their conditions and attempt to cannibalize each other; chickens have their beaks clipped to avoid them pecking at each other, causing immense pain; cows and bulls have their horns burned off to avoid them damaging others (as this damages the final meat product, too); male chicks that hatch in the egg industry are ground up in a macerator, un-anaesthetized, in the first 24 hours of their life as they will not go on to lay eggs. These practices vary widely among factory farms and among jurisdictions. Yet, arguably, the welfare of animals cannot be properly respected because all CAFOs fundamentally see animals as mere products-in-the-making instead of the complex, sentient, and emotional individuals science has repeatedly shown them to be.[4] ll. Climate Ethics The climate impact of farming animals is increasingly evident. Around 15-20 percent of human-made emissions come from animal agriculture.[5] and deforestation to create space for livestock grazing or growing crops to feed farm animals. An average quarter-pound hamburger uses up to six kilograms of feed, causes 66 square feet of deforestation, and uses up to 65 liters of water, with around 4kg of carbon emissions to boot – a majority of which come from the cattle themselves (as opposed to food processing or food miles).[6] According to environmentalist George Monbiot, “Even if you shipped bananas six times around the planet, their impact would be lower than local beef and lamb.”[7] The disparity between the impact of animal and plant-based produce is stark. Not all animal products are created equally. Broadly, there are two ways to farm animals: extensive or intensive farming. Extensive animal farming might be considered a “traditional” way of farming: keeping animals in large fields, as naturally as possible, often rotating them between different areas to not overgraze any one pasture. However, its efficiency is much lower than intensive farming – the style CAFOs use. Intensive animal farming is arguably more environmentally efficient. That is, CAFOs produce more output per unit of natural resource input than extensive systems do. However, environmental efficiency is relative rather than absolute, as the level of intensive animal agriculture leads to large-scale deforestation to produce crops for factory-farmed animals. CAFOs are also point-sources of pollution from the massive quantities of animal waste produced – around 1,000,000 tons per day in the US alone, triple the amount of all human waste produced per day – which has significant negative impacts on human health in the surrounding areas.[8] The environmental impacts of CAFOs must be given serious ethical consideration using new frameworks in climate ethics and bioethics. One example of a land ethic to guide thinking in this area is that “[it] is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”[9] It remains to be seen whether CAFOs can operate in a way that respects and preserves “integrity, stability, and beauty” of their local ecosystem, given the facts above. The pollution CAFOs emit affects the surrounding areas. Hog CAFOs are built disproportionately around predominantly minority communities in North Carolina where poverty rates are high.[10] Animal waste carries heavy metals, infectious diseases, and antibiotic-resistant pathogens into nearby water sources and houses. lll. Workers’ Rights The poor treatment of slaughterhouse workers has been documented in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic, where, despite outbreaks of coronavirus among workers, the White House ordered that they remain open to maintain the supply of meat. The staff of slaughterhouses in the US is almost exclusively people with low socioeconomic status, ethnic minorities, and migrants.[11] Almost half of frontline slaughterhouse workers are Hispanic, and a quarter is Black. Additionally, half are immigrants, and a quarter comes from families with limited English proficiency. An eighth live in poverty, with around 45 percent below 200 percent of the poverty line. Only one-in-forty has a college degree or more, while one-in-six lacks health insurance. Employee turnover rates are around 200 percent per year.[12] Injuries are very common in the fast-moving conveyor belt environment with sharp knives, machinery, and a crowd of workers. OSHA found 17 cases of hospitalizations, two body part amputations per week, and loss of an eye every month in the American industrial meat industry. This is three times the workplace accident rate of the average American worker across all industries. Beef and pork workers are likely to suffer repetitive strain at seven times the rate of the rest of the population. One worker told the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that “every co-worker I know has been injured at some point… I can attest that the line speeds are already too fast to keep up with. Please, I am asking you not to increase them anymore.”[13] Slaughterhouses pose a major risk to public health from zoonotic disease transmission. 20 percent of slaughterhouse workers interviewed in Kenya admit to slaughtering sick animals, which greatly increases the risk of transmitting disease either to a worker further down the production line or a consumer at the supermarket.[14] Moreover, due to poor hygienic conditions and high population density, animals in CAFOs are overfed with antibiotics. Over two-thirds of all antibiotics globally are given to animals in agriculture, predicted to increase by 66 percent by 2030.[15] The majority of these animals do not require antibiotics; their overuse creates a strong and consistent selection pressure on any present bacterial pathogens that leads to antibiotic resistance that could create devastating cross-species disease affecting even humans. The World Health Organization predicts that around 10 million humans per year could die of antibiotic-resistant diseases by 2050.[16] Many of these antibiotics are also necessary for human medical interventions, so antibiotics in animals have a tremendous opportunity cost. The final concern is that of zoonosis itself. A zoonotic disease is any disease that crosses the species boundary from animals to humans. According to the United Nations, 60 percent of all known infections and 75 percent of all emerging infections are zoonotic.[17] Many potential zoonoses are harbored in wild animals (particularly when wild animals are hunted and sold in wet markets) because of the natural biodiversity. However, around a third of zoonoses originate in domesticated animals, which is a huge proportion given the relative lack of diversity of the animals we choose to eat. Q fever, or “query fever,” is an example of a slaughterhouse-borne disease. Q fever has a high fatality rate when untreated that decreases to “just” 2 percent with appropriate treatment.[18] H1N1 (swine flu) and H5N1 (bird flu) are perhaps the most famous examples of zoonoses associated with factory farming. lV. Unjust Distribution The global distribution of food can cause suffering. According to research commissioned by the BBC, the average Ethiopian eats around seven kilograms of meat per year, and the average Rwandan eats eight.[19] This is a factor of ten smaller than the average European, while the average American clocks in at around 115 kilograms of meat per year. In terms of calories, Eritreans average around 1600kcal per day while most Europeans ingest double that. Despite enough calories on the planet to sustain its population, 25,000 people worldwide starve to death each day, 40 percent of whom are children. There are two ways to address the unjust distribution: efficient redistribution and greater net production, which are not mutually exclusive. Some argue that redistribution will lead to lower net productivity because it disincentivizes labor;[20] others argue that redistribution is necessary to respect human rights of survival and equality.[21] Instead of arguing this point, I will focus on people’s food choices and their effect on both the efficiency and total yield of global agriculture, as these are usually less discussed. Regardless of the metric used, animals always produce far fewer calories and nutrients (protein, iron, zinc, and all the others) than we feed them. This is true because of the conservation of mass. They cannot feasibly produce more, as they burn off and excrete much of what they ingest. The exact measurement of the loss varies based on the metric used. When compared to live weight, cows consume somewhere around ten times their weight. When it comes to actual edible weight, they consume up to 25 times more than we can get out of them. Cows are only around one percent efficient in terms of calorific production and four percent efficient in protein production. Poultry is more efficient, but we still lose half of all crops we put into them by weight and get out only a fifth of the protein and a tenth of the calories fed to them.[22] Most other animals lie somewhere in the middle of these two in terms of efficiency, but no animal is ever as efficient as eating plants before they are filtered through animals in terms of the nutritional value available to the world. Due to this inefficiency, it takes over 100 square meters to produce 1000 calories of beef or lamb compared to just 1.3 square meters to produce the same calories from tofu.[23] The food choices in the Western world, where we eat so much more meat than people eat elsewhere, are directly related to a reduction in the amount of food and nutrition in the rest of the world. The most influential theory of justice in recent times is John Rawls’ Original Position wherein stakeholders in an idealized future society meet behind a “veil of ignorance” to negotiate policy, not knowing the role they will play in that society. There is an equal chance of each policymaker ending up poverty-stricken or incredibly privileged; therefore, each should negotiate to maximize the outcome of all citizens, especially those worst-off in society, known as the “maximin” strategy. In this hypothetical scenario, resource distribution would be devised to be as just as possible and should therefore sway away from animal consumption. CONCLUSION Evidence is growing that animals of all sorts, including fish and certain invertebrates, feel pain in ways that people are increasingly inclined to respect, though still, climate science is more developed and often inspires more public passion than animal rights do. Workers’ rights and welfare in slaughterhouses have become mainstream topics of conversation because of the outbreaks of COVID-19 in such settings. Environmentalists note overconsumption in high-income countries, also shining a light on the starvation of much of the low-income population of the world. At the intersection of these bioethical issues lies the modern CAFO, significantly contributing to animal suffering, climate change, poor working conditions conducive to disease, and unjust distribution of finite global resources (physical space and crops). It is certainly time to move away from the CAFO model of agriculture to at least a healthy mixture of extensive agriculture and alternative (non-animal) proteins. - [1] Berners-Lee M, Kennelly C, Watson R, Hewitt CN; Current global food production is sufficient to meet human nutritional needs in 2050 provided there is radical societal adaptation. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. 6:52, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.310 [2] : Lund TB, Kondrup SV, Sandøe P. A multidimensional measure of animal ethics orientation – Developed and applied to a representative sample of the Danish public. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0211656. 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0211656 [3] Fiber-Ostrow P & Lovell JS. Behind a veil of secrecy: animal abuse, factory farms, and Ag-Gag legislation, Contemporary Justice Review, 19:2, p230-249. 2016. DOI: 10.1080/10282580.2016.1168257 [4] Jones RC. Science, sentience, and animal welfare. Biol Philos 28, p1–30 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-012-9351-1 [5] Twine R. Emissions from Animal Agriculture—16.5% Is the New Minimum Figure. Sustainability, 13, 6276. 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su13116276 [6] Capper JL. "Is the Grass Always Greener? Comparing the Environmental Impact of Conventional, Natural and Grass-Fed Beef Production Systems" Animals 2, no. 2: 127-143. 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani2020127 [7] Monbiot, George. “In Trying to Reduce the Impact of Our Diets, … Their Impact Would Be Lower than Local Beef and Lamb.” Twitter, Twitter, 24 Jan. 2020, twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1220691168012460032. [8] Copeland C. Resources, Science, and Industry Division. "Animal waste and water quality: EPA regulation of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)." Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress, 2006. [9] Leopold A. A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. 1949. [10] Nicole W. “CAFOs and environmental justice: the case of North Carolina.” Environmental health perspectives vol. 121:6. 2013: A182-9. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.121-a182 [11] Fremstad S, Brown H, Rho HJ. CEPR’s Analysis of American Community Survey, 2014-2018 5-Year Estimates. 2020. Accessed 08/06/21 at https://cepr.net/meatpacking-workers-are-a-diverse-group-who-need-better-protections [12] Broadway, MJ. "Planning for change in small towns or trying to avoid the slaughterhouse blues." Journal of Rural Studies 16:1. P37-46. 2000. [13] Wasley A. The Guardian. 2018. Accessed 08/06/2021 at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/05/amputations-serious-injuries-us-meat-industry-plant [14] Cook EA, de Glanville WA, Thomas LF, Kariuki S, Bronsvoort BM, Fèvre EM. Working conditions and public health risks in slaughterhouses in western Kenya. BMC Public Health. 17(1):14. 2017. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-3923-y. [15] Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals. Van Boeckel TP, Brower C, Gilbert M, Grenfell BT, Levin SA, Robinson TP, Teillant A, Laxminarayan R. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 112 (18) 5649-5654; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1503141112 [16] Resistance, IICGoA. "No Time to Wait: Securing the future from drug-resistant infections." Report to the Secretary-General of the United Nations: p1-36. 2019. [17] Espinosa R, Tago D, Treich N. Infectious Diseases and Meat Production. Environ Resource Econ 76, p1019–1044. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00484-3 [18] “Q Fever Fact Sheet.” Pennsylvania Department of Health, 4 Jan. 2003. https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/Documents/Diseases%20and%20Conditions/Q%20Fever%20.pdf [19] Ritchie, Hannah. “Which Countries Eat the Most Meat?” BBC News, BBC, 4 Feb. 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47057341. [20] Reynolds, Alan. “The Fundamental Fallacy of Redistribution.” Cato.org, 11 Feb. 2016, 1:22 pm, www.cato.org/blog/fundamental-fallacy-redistribution. [21] Patricia Justino Professor and Senior Research Fellow. “Welfare Works: Redistribution Is the Way to Create Less Violent, Less Unequal Societies.” The Conversation, 20 Aug. 2021, theconversation.com/welfare-works-redistribution-is-the-way-to-create-less-violent-less-unequal-societies-128807. [22] Cassidy E, et al, “Redefining Agricultural Yields: From Tonnes to People Nourished Per Hectare.” Environmental Research Letters, V. 8(3), p2-3. IOPScience. 2013, http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/3/034015 [23] Poore J, Nemecek T. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), p987-992. 2018.