Some legal reflections on the fate of JJ4, the Italian brown bear that killed a jogger, and the EU Habitats Directive: Donaldson and Kymlicka’s wild animal sovereignty theory put to the test?

This article uses the tragic death of Andrea Papi, the first person in the modern history of Italy to be killed by a brown bear, as a case-study to analyse to what extent EU nature protection law is aligned with the wild animal sovereignty theory of Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka. Based on the recent decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) regarding human-carnivore coexistence, this article argues that large carnivores, such as brown bears, appear to be increasingly treated by the Habitats Directive as ‘sovereign’ wild animals, with certain inviolable rights. Whereas recent case-law of the CJEU acknowledges that wild animals are to be treated as sentient beings, the Court also increasingly underscored the importance of the restoration of the brown bear’s main habitats on the European continent. In doing so, the recent decisions of the Court seem to move away from the so-called stewardship-model by urging Member States to guarantee the long-term flourishing of sovereign communities of brown bears.