Steven Wise
Going wild in the courtroom
Lawyer, professor, author, and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project
“I became a lawyer because I wanted to speak for the voiceless and defend the defenceless. And I never realised how voiceless and defenseless the trillions of nonhuman animals are.”
After two decades spent as an animal protection attorney and repeatedly asking himself “Why do humans have rights?”, Steven Wise founded the Nonhuman Rights Project in 1996. With chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins and whales as clients, the groundbreaking project works on litigation, legislation, and education for the same rights to be recognised to all autonomous animals, human or otherwise.
Professor Wise has worked in institutions across the US and around the world, and taught the first class in “Animal Rights Law” at Harvard Law School. He is the author of four books.
Steven will join us live as a remote guest and will interact with the festival audience.