Many animal and environmental activists think of international trade law as a block to the achievement of their goals and perceive the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a threat to animals. Yet, the first legal decision of an international tribunal to devote careful, sustained attention to animal welfare issues comes from the WTO, in the EC -Seal Products decision. This article argues that international trade law is currently an important, although under-acknowledged, locus for the development of global norms concerning the protection of animals, and that animal conservation and animal welfare can be seen as aspects of a single overarching principle of animal protection. International trade law contributes to animal protection in two ways. Firstly, WTO jurisprudence has recognized animal protection as a legitimate basis for invoking exceptions to trade rules (as in EC -Seal Products). Secondly, international trade negotiations enhance cooperation on the implementation and enforcement of existing conservation obligations (as in the new Trans-Pacific Partnership's Environment Chapter).
EC–Seal Products has been characterized as a contest between local moral preferences about animal welfare, on the one hand, and global commitments to trade disciplines on the other. But that description fails to take into account the development of international legal norms concerning animal welfare and their relevance to this case, as well as to other potential disputes involving animal welfare measures that affect trade. The international dimension of animal welfare implicates two ongoing debates in international trade law: what the relationship should be between WTO law and general international law, and the extent to which ‘public morals’ under Article XX(a) of GATT can be locally defined or need to be internationally shared. This Article examines the argument that there is a general principle of international law concerning animal welfare, and analyzes the role that international norms regarding animal welfare should play in EC–Seal Products.
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