Cass Sunstein, "A Bill of Rights for Animals"

This talk took place at New York University on September 17, 2025 and was hosted by the NYU Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy.

About the talk
Should there be a Bill of Rights for Animals? What should it contain? If we seek to draw lessons from the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we should seek an "incompletely theorized agreement," that is, an agreement from people who disagree on the most fundamental questions, or who are not sure what they think about those questions. We should also want a Bill of Rights for Animals that does not resolve all questions for all time, but that is capable of change and growth over time (in areas that include, for example, scientific experimentation and hunting). There is good reason for a Bill of Rights with six specific and identifiable components, including a right to be free from human cruelty and abuse, and extending far more broadly to protect against multiple human infringements on the well-being of other animals. This event will close with a vegan reception for in-person guests.

About the speakers
Cass R. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. In 2018, he received the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities. In 2020, the World Health Organization appointed him as Chair of its technical advisory group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and after that, he served on the President’s Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and on the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board. Mr. Sunstein has advised officials at the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank, and many nations on issues of law and public policy.

Thank you to NYU Animal Studies, the NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, and the NYU Center for Bioethics for co-sponsoring this event.