dr. EM (Eva) Bernet Kempers

I am a postdoctoral researcher in animal law at Wageningen University & Research (Law Group). I study how legal systems engage with non-human interests, and in particular how animals and their interests can be accommodated within the continental European legal tradition. 

My current research focuses on the emerging field of animal litigation: the ways in which animal interests are brought before courts and enforced through legal procedures. In this regard, I analyseinnovative models of representation, access to justice, and enforcement, and explores how existing legal instruments—across both public and private law—can be used to address the gap between law on the books and law in action. My approach combines doctrinal and comparative legal analysis with socio-legal insights.

I am involved in various international networks and research groups such as AJA (Access to Justice for Animals), the legal team of the COST-Action Affect-Evo, and I lead the international teaching network in animal rights law at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law. One of my longterm goals is to establish animal law as a standard part of all legal curricula. I am also active within the editorial board of the Journal of Animal Law, Ethics and Onehealth and at the advisary board of the Journal for Animal Rights Law. 

I completed my PhD at the University of Antwerp, where I specialised in the increasing recognition of 'animal dignity' from an international and comparative perspective. My interdisciplinary background in anthropology (BA), environmental law (LLM), and criminology (MA) (Utrecht University) informs my approach to animal law as a field at the intersection of law, society, and ethics.