Gli animali “in quanto esseri senzienti”: riflessioni intorno alla riforma costituzionale belga del 2024

Animals “as sentient beings”: reflections around the Belgian constitutional reform of 2024

Abstract

The present essay aims, once the topic of the legal relevance of the concept of animal “sentience” has been introduced, to carry out some considerations concerning the recent Belgian constitutional reform that recognized animals as sentient beings, placing it within the particular evolutionary path (with particular reference to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights) of that system. Finally, to close the circle, some considerations concerning the general topic of the protection of nonhuman animals are deduced.

Keywords: Animal law; Sentience; Belgium; Animal rights; Belgian constitution