Global Animal Law from the Margins: International Trade in Animals and Their Bodies, by Iyan Offor Routledge, 2023, 320 pp, £145 hb, £35.99 ebk ISBN 9781032226989 hb, 9781003273783 ebk

Global Animal Law from the Margins: International Trade in Animals and Their Bodies will be of interest to anyone working on environmental issues, animal protection or human rights.Offer's work provides an in-depth analysis of global animal law, introducing a comprehensive framework of 'second wave animal ethics', which is applied to the law on international trade in animals as a case study.Both the framework and its case study application provide tools for normative analysis in the field of social justice.International trade law is a deliberate choice for the case study; as Offor notes, the neoliberal approach in trade law is insufficiently challenged by global animal lawyers (p. 1).Rather, the recent optimism from animal law scholars regarding animal welfare in the international trade regime only 'further entrench[es] law's role in commodifying animals' (p.168).Offor argues that this position can be explained by the first wave (as opposed to the second wave) animal ethics perspective taken by these animal law scholars.International trade law also provides intersectional insights related to human rights, as neoliberal trade ideologies are often detrimental to the environment and violate human rights, as well as disregarding animal welfare.The book's most significant contribution to both animal law and social justice scholarship is its critical approach, as expressed through its theoretical framework, which Offor refers to as 'Marginal theory and the Otherhood', and which forms the basis of second wave animal ethics (Chapters 1 and 2).Offor's distinction between first and second wave animal ethics is inspired by similar waves in feminism (p. 25, footnote 4).He highlights four characteristics of first wave animal ethicssimilarity arguments, an expansion of the circle of moral concern, the liberal tradition, and a universal system of rules (pp.30-49)which second wave animal ethics addresses.Firstly, as opposed to similarity arguments, second wave animal ethics follows indistinction theory, meaning deconstructing the 'human' and the 'animal' and shifting the focus from sentience to flourishing.Secondly, the 'boundless ethic' of second wave ethics broadens the circle of moral concern and prioritizes marginal Others.In addition, a boundless ethic makes animal ethics more compatible with