WSFSN-2025

Dr. h.c. Antoine F. Goetschel has devoted himself to animals in law since 1985, in addition to his law firm in Zurich. As the author of the legal commentary on the Swiss Animal Protection Act (1986) and the comprehensive collection of decrees on animals in Swiss law (1987), he wrote his dissertation on animal protection and fundamental rights, headed the preliminary organization of the Foundation for Animals in Law (1995), which he established and which today has the most comprehensive collection of around 30,000 books and articles on animals in law and ethics and the collection of all of Switzerland's approximately 28,000 criminal decisions on animal protection. Antoine contributed significantly to the introduction of the concept of the “dignity of the creature” into the Swiss Federal Constitution and the Swiss Animal Protection Act and to the establishment of the worldwide unique Office of the Attorney for Animal Protection in Criminal Matters of the Canton of Zurich, of which he was also an officer from 2007 - 2010. Ten years ago, he established the Global Animal Law GAL Association with currently around 130 lawyers and law professors specializing in animal (protection) law and, together with some of them, drafted the “UN Convention on Animal Health and Protection” (www.uncahp.org). All animal protection laws in the world are also compiled on www.globalanimallaw.org and a matrix is available for legal policy postulates from local to global, from short-term to visionary, in the areas of legislation, application and education. He has written a total of 13 books (some alone, some as part of a team) on Swiss animal protection law and over fifty articles on UNCAHP, animal-friendly financial investments and animals in global law. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern for his services.