Gary Lawrence Francione (1954) is an American law professor at Rutgers University. He is well known for his work in animal rights law.

Francione's theory starts with the premise that animals are sentient; he bases this theory on their possession of a central nervous system. According to Francione, their status as sentient beings entitles to a basic right not to be treated as the property of humans, nor to be used for the benefit of humans when it is against their own interest. While Francione agrees with most of the authors working on animal rights in the rejection of species-membership as a relevant moral property and the defense of the capacity to suffer harm and to receive benefit in a consciously subjective manner as that which makes a being worthy of moral consideration, his view is a clean departure from previous animal welfare positions in that he calls for the abolition of the property status of animals and for the end of human exploitation of animals, and not the mere regulation of those practices.

Bibliography

• (with Anna E. Charlton) Vivisection and Dissection in the Classroom : A Guide to Conscientious Objection. Jenkintown, Pa. : American Anti-Vivisection Society, 1992.
• Animals, Property and the Law. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995, [ISBN 1566392845]
• "Personhood, Property and Legal Competence. In Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer (eds.), The Great Ape Project.

New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993, pp. 248-257.

• Rain without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. [ISBN 1566394619]
• Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog?. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000. [ISBN 1566396921]

External link

• Animal Rights Law Project at Rutgers University