Back محاكمة الحيوان Arabic Tierprozess German Δίκη ζώων Greek Juicios a animales Spanish Animalia-epaiketa Basque Eläinoikeudenkäynti Finnish Procès d'animaux French משפט בעלי חיים HE Կենդանիների դատավարություն Armenian 動物裁判 Japanese
In legal history, an animal trial is a trial of a non-human animal. These trials were conducted in both secular or ecclesiastic courts. Records of such trials show that they took place in Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. In modern times, it is considered in most criminal justice systems that non-human animals lack moral agency and so cannot be held culpable for an act.
The archives on animal cases are spotty. France has preserved significant documentation, but, more generally, extant documentation does not permit a comprehensive analysis of the prevalence and distribution of these cases at different points in time and place.