Activist Court Calendar

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

The European Court of Justice on May 24 rejected a French
attempt to overturn a European Union requirement that animal testing
of cosmetics cease in the 25 member nations by 2009, along with
imports of animal-tested cosmetic products. The French government
argued unsuccessfully that the E.U. regulation would unjustly harm
the competitive position of French cosmetics manufacturers.

Australian Federal Court Judge James Allsop, of Sydney, on
May 27 dismissed an attempt by Humane Soceity International Australia
director Michael Kennedy to sue the Japanese whaling firm Kyodo
Senpaku Kaisha Ltd. for killing whales inside the Antarctic Whale
Sanctuary, declared by the Austral-ian government but not recognized
by Japan. Allsop accepted the argument of Australian attorney
general Philip Ruddock that it cannot enforce a territorial claim not
recognized by all parties to international agreements. Allsop
allowed HSI, the global arm of the Humane Society of the U.S., to
appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court.

Justice Stanley Burnton of the British High Court on April 12
authorized the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection to
pursue an application for judicial review of decisions made by the
Home Office when it licensed invasive experiments on monkeys at
Cambridge University in 1998. The BUAV contends that the monkeys are
used in ways that contravene the Animal Scientific Procedures Act of
1986.

The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled on April 20, 2005 that
Oregon Health & Science University need not disclose the names of
researchers at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center. In
Defense of Animals argued that the identities of researchers should
be disclosed in the public interest, but Oregon law specifically
exempts Oregon Regional Primate Research Center employees.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty, of Lafayette,
Louisiana, ruled on May 30, 2005 that the United Gamefowl Breeders
Association, based in Albany, Ohio, had failed to establish that a
2002 federal law prohibiting interstate transport of gamecocks
discriminates against Cajuns and Hispanic people. Doherty also
rejected claims that cockfighting cannot be regulated as commerce
because it is a hobby, and that the federal law usurps states’
rights in attempting to regulate morality.

A three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court of
Pennsyl-vania on April 11 agreed that Lancaster Township has the
right to enforce a 1982 ordinance against spotlighting, even though
state law permits it. Hunters often sweep deer habitat with bright
lights in the weeks before deer hunting season opens to track herd
movements and find bucks they might try to shoot. Spotlighting can,
however, startle rural residents who suddenly and repeatedly find
their bedrooms lit up at odd hours. A related practice,
“jacklighting,” uses light to cause deer to freeze, enabling an
illegal night hunter to kill them more easily.