Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Leslie Rule (Council Member, Ojai) presented 'From Theory to Statute: The Process Behind Ojai's Animal Rights Ordinance' at our Centre's European Animal Rights Law Conference 2025.
As an Ojai California City Council member, and in collaboration with the Nonhuman Rights Project, Rule shepherded legislation granting elephants the right of bodily liberty - the US's first such law. She also passed Ojai's Rights of Nature ordinance, advancing natural entities as rights holders. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard College where she studied existential phenomenology. Her ties to the UK legal system remain strong through her son, Thomas Mallon, a barrister practicing at Henderson Chambers in London.
The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law is an academic centre dedicated to the study, understanding and promotion of fundamental rights for non-human animals, based in Cambridge, UK. Find more information at animalrightslaw.org
The views expressed in these presentations are those of the respective speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law.
Leslie Rule (Council Member, Ojai) presented 'From Theory to Statute: The Process Behind Ojai's Animal Rights Ordinance' at our Centre's European Animal Rights Law Conference 2025.
As an Ojai California City Council member, and in collaboration with the Nonhuman Rights Project, Rule shepherded legislation granting elephants the right of bodily liberty - the US's first such law. She also passed Ojai's Rights of Nature ordinance, advancing natural entities as rights holders. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard College where she studied existential phenomenology. Her ties to the UK legal system remain strong through her son, Thomas Mallon, a barrister practicing at Henderson Chambers in London.
The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law is an academic centre dedicated to the study, understanding and promotion of fundamental rights for non-human animals, based in Cambridge, UK. Find more information at animalrightslaw.org
The views expressed in these presentations are those of the respective speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law.
![Animal Rights Law Lecture 1 [University of Cambridge, 2021-2022]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ue3rEs8p1Eo/mqdefault.jpg "Animal Rights Law Lecture 1 [University of Cambridge, 2021-2022]
Animal Rights Law Lecture 1 [University of Cambridge, 2021-2022]")
