Joan E. Schaffner

Joan E. Schaffner, Associate Professor of Law, received a BS in mechanical engineering (magna cum laude) and JD(Order of the Coif) from the University of Southern California and a MS in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan has taught Civil Procedure, Legislation and Regulation, Access to Justice Clinic—Animal Law Division, Sexuality and the Law and Remedies. Ze is the editor-in-chief of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal.

Joan is the Faculty Co-Director of the GW Animal Legal Education initiative. Joan’s scholarship focuses on animal protection law. Ze has presented on animal law panels and conferences world-wide.  Joan’s recent scholarship has focused on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and animal law as well as our treatment of free-roaming cats with a recent presentations at the AI, Animals and the Law Conference at the George Washington University Law School, and during the American Bar Association, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section’s webinar series on Recent Developments in Animal Shelter Law. Joan is the editor of the Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Animal Law, published in July 2025, with 119 entries, by 140 authors from 18 countries.  Ze contributed entries on Shelter Law, Breeding Animals for Pets and Research, ‘Invasive Species” Management—Managing the Australian Free-Roaming Cat Population.  In addition to numerous articles, Joan is the author of the book Introduction to Animals and the Law, co-author and editor of A Lawyer’s Guide to Dangerous Dog Issues and Litigating Animal Law Disputes: A Complete Guide for Lawyers, and author of several book chapters including “Valuing Nature in Environmental Law: Lessons for Animal Law and the Valuation of Animals” in What Can Animal Law Learn from Environmental Law?, “Animal Cruelty and the Law: Permitted Conduct” in Animal Cruelty: A Multidisciplinary Approach, “Value, wild animals and law” in Animal Welfare and International Environmental Law: From Conservation to Compassion.

Joan is Publications Officer of the American Bar Association (ABA), International Law Section (ILS), Publications Vice-Chair and Past Co-Chair of the ABA ILS International Animal Law Committee; Past Chair of the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Animal Law Committee; Founding Chair of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Section on Animal Law; Fellow of Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics; and on the Board of the International Coalition for Animal Protection. Joan has received the ABA TIPS Andrew C. Hecker Memorial Award, the AALS Excellence in Animal Law Award: Scholarship-Teaching-Service, and the ABA TIPS Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award.  On a personal note, Joan shares zir life with a magnificent family of felines.

Joan E. Schaffner is an affiliated faculty member of the Global Food Institute at GW.

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