Introducing animal protection into Constitutional Law? On the necessity of including animal protection in the Constitution

The inclusion of animal protection in the constitution poses a lengthy legal-political demand, which is again being vehemently discussed at the present time. Under consideration of juristic aspects, the following treatise attemps to clarify the legal requirements which presently exist for anchoring animal protection in constitutional law. It is therefore necessary in the first instance to explain the present situation regarding animal protection law. The legal situation in this respect is marked by a fundamental collision between special democratic rights guaranteed by the constitution on the one hand, an the norms of animal protection law on the other hand, which tend to restrict these rights. Based on concrete examples taken from court decisions, it is shown that constitutional vacuum surrounding a major part of animal protection law greatly complicates or even renders impossible the application and enforcement of the latter in practice. A prerequisite for a proper legal framework for animal protection is that the different special basic democratic rights governing animal use must be counterpoised by animal protection laws backed up by the constitution. Only by this means it is possible to prevent the ineffectiveness of animal protection legislative norms in the long term.