Non solo pets: l'animale da compagnia nella western legal tradition

The paper reconstructs, in a comparative perspective, the evolution of the law applicable to companion animals. In fact, pets are protected both as sentient beings and as part of a special relationship with humans. The emotional bond that humans openly feel in the presence of their pets and which is expressed in mutual attachment, often a bearer of great suffering in the event of the loss of the animal, highlights the inadequacy of the summa divisio between res and personae which still characterises most of the legal systems considered.