Judaic Studies

Professor Saul Olyan delivered an invited lecture at the Collège de France in Paris

On 9 November 2018, Saul Olyan delivered an invited lecture at the Collège de France in Paris entitled "Les droits des animaux existent-ils selon la Bible hébraïque?" 

About the Lecture

Much has been written about animal rights in the four decades that followed the publication of Peter Singer's classic monograph, Animal Liberation (1975). Several studies have examined - often in passing - that biblical texts can contribute to animal rights debates. However, this work is almost exclusively done by non-specialists. In my lecture, I begin to address this lack of professional scholarship on this subject by exploring what four biblical laws - Exodus 23: 10-11, 12; Lev 25: 2-7 and Deut 5: 12-15 - might suggest on the legal status of animals. US law professor Gary L. Francione says that we normally use the term "rights" to describe a type of protection that does not disappear in the face of the competing claims of others. I will then examine whether the four biblical laws in question meet this standard.

View his lecture in French