Deconstructing Thinghood = Constructing Personhood?

Insights from the Swiss Legal Dereification of Animals

Abstract

This article analyses the deconstruction of animals' thinghood status in Switzerland, asking what this reform reveals about the construction of new legal subjects within a democratic legal order. It aims to highlight the importance of the legislative procedure in such cases. The article explores the actors, arguments, political dynamics, and societal factors that shaped the Swiss reform, through a doctrinal and contextual analysis of the Swiss legislative process. It argues that the Swiss case demonstrates both the potential and the limits of legal dereification: although the reform seems to create an intermediate status between things and persons for animals, its immediate legal effects remained limited and largely symbolic. Nevertheless, when read together with other constitutional regulations regarding the recognition of animals' dignity, and against the broader legal framework, it contributed to a gradual reconfiguration of legal subjectivity. The article concludes that successful legal change in this field depends not only on doctrinal innovation, but also on democratic strategies, political context, collective perceptions, and precise legal terminology. The Swiss case thus offers broader lessons for the evolving legal recognition of non-human entities.