Embodied Communication and Interspecies Justice - A Phenomenological Approach to Law, Ethics, and Agency

This book advances a bold phenomenological foundation for animal legal personhood. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty, care ethics, ethology, Indigenous studies, and critical human–animal scholarship, Aubert develops a post-anthropocentric account of animals as embodied, intentional, communicative, and vulnerable agents. The book challenges dominant cognitive and anthropocentric criteria for inclusion in moral and legal communities, proposing instead an ethics grounded in attentiveness, relationality, and embodied communication. Through vivid multispecies encounters, Aubert identifies animals’ fundamental interests and preference-based agency, advancing a framework for translating their standpoints into legal institutions. Interweaving analytic clarity with personal reflection, this interdisciplinary study reimagines animal rights, legal subjecthood, and ecological care for the Anthropocene, offering an innovative path forward for law, ethics, and environmental humanities.