GW Animal Law-Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Collaboration
The GW Animal Law program (Animal Legal Education Initiative) and the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics established an innovative collaboration across geographic and professional domains in the service of protecting animals. In this novel partnership, each program offers unique perspective and expertise to strengthen our missions. Each works to prepare students to participate in the work of animal protection and creates opportunities for teaching, writing, speaking, and supportive engagement with the larger community. The students, authors, faculty, advocates, scientists, and others who work with us benefit from access to the programming, resources and community we build and enhance.
The Animal Law program at GW Law provides an exceptionally broad range of educational and practical opportunities for law students while also providing pro bono legal services to the District of Columbia government, animal advocacy organizations, and community groups working to protect animals. A large part of the program is the Animal Legal Education Initiative (ALEI) which is dedicated to developing Animal Law as a stand-alone legal discipline that is fully integrated into the legal academy.
The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics is an independent center that aims to pioneer ethical perspectives on animals through academic research, teaching, and publication. It comprises an international fellowship of more than 100 scholars. The Centre publishes the Journal of Animal Ethics with the University of Illinois Press, and the animal ethics book series with Palgrave Macmillan.
Aquaculture Summit
The Aquaculture Summit grew out of the need for more rigorous academic focus on the developing aquaculture industry. The goal of the Summit is to make concrete progress addressing, reducing, and preventing the problems of aquaculture by bringing together experts from around the world to focus on one aspect of the industry each year.
The Aquaculture Summit works to:
- Develop and enhance working communities to address these issues
- Create stronger networks to leverage and build on existing knowledge and expertise
- Increase knowledge and expertise
- Apply knowledge and expertise to address problems
- Create an expert report each year
- Create films and reels to enhance education goals
Octopus Aquaculture Report
The report is the result of a collaboration between the George Washington University Law School Animal Law program and the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, which brought together more than twenty experts for the first GW Animal Law - Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Aquaculture Summit in March 2026. The experts included scientists, ethicists, economists, legal scholars, and advocates, all of whom were focused on the issue of octopus aquaculture. The report is the product of this collaboration. Its aim is to synthesize the expertise - legal, scientific, economic and ethical - on potential octopus farming in one place to aid in informing legislators, policy makers, civil society, NGO’s, and the public. Alongside the expertise of multiple co-authors, the report has been independently conceived and peer-reviewed.
2026 report document forthcoming
Resources
- Octopus Aquaculture Film
During the Octopus Summit, our experts were interviewed for this film. The film is designed to offer a short synthesis of their expertise related to issues in octopus farming and the needs of octopuses. Feel free to use this film to educate your communities.
- Octopus Aquaculture Resources & Short Social Media Reels
During the Octopus Summit, our experts were interviewed, and the information they shared was made into multiple reels. These are designed to be used in educational work on social media. Feel free to use any of these reels to educate your communities.
- Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Summer School Resources on Aquaculture
The Annual Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School focused on The Ethics of Captivity in 2025, with a special focus on Aquaculture. The short film on Aquaculture provides an overview of the issues flowing from aquaculture.