In the United States, the law has long treated animals as property and objects to be owned, used, and discarded within human-centered systems. While legal protections against animal cruelty exist, they are often fragmented, riddled with exemptions, and inconsistently enforced. The result is a legal framework that permits immense suffering, particularly for animals used in industrial agriculture, research, and entertainment, while extending comparatively greater protections to companion animals or endangered species.  Over the past several decades, the field of animal law has emerged to interrogate this system, asking not only how animals are treated under the law, but why...and what must change. Animal law challenges the assumption that legal systems are neutral, revealing how they reflect and reinforce hierarchies that privilege human interests, corporate power, and economic efficiency over animal life and well-being. In this course, we will examine key legal frameworks in the U.S. governing the treatment of animals and explore how the law functions both as a tool of oppression and a site for advocacy. Each class focuses on a major theme in contemporary animal law: the foundational classification of animals as property; the regulation (and deregulation) of their use in various industries; the legal distinctions between species and contexts; and the growing efforts to transform legal systems through strategic litigation, rights-based arguments, and cross-movement coalition building. Through this lens, students will be invited to think critically about the role of law in shaping societal values and the possibilities for building a more just, multispecies future. Course Details4 hours of recorded lecture contentAdditional readings for self-studyPlus+ 4 x 60-minute live Q&A Zoom sessions with Professor Nirva Patel:Friday 2/6/26, 9-10 a.m. PTFriday 2/13/26, 9-10 a.m. PTFriday 2/20/26, 9-10 a.m. PTFriday 2/27/26, 9-10 a.m. PT