ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

“On Behalf of Tommy”: Primate Cognition and the Making of Legal Personhood

• In Event: From Specimens to Subjects: Plural Practices of Seeing and Naming Primates

English Abstract

In December 2013, a chimpanzee named Tommy became the first nonhuman animal in U.S. history represented in a habeas corpus hearing. This landmark case marks a profound historical shift: before the 1970s, animal protection emphasized pain capacity; since then, cognitive capabilities have become central to legal arguments for animal rights. This paper traces how scientific findings about primate cognition translated into philosophical claims and legal action based on individualized personhood. It examines the shifting meanings of primates’ brains from early comparative anatomy through field primatology to modern laboratory tests of self-recognition and neurological mapping. I demonstrate how emerging legal discourse about primate rights drew heavily on scientific findings about “human-like” cognitive traits, influenced by the cognitive revolution and the shift from behaviorist to neurological approaches. The presentation addresses the issue of singling out animals for scientific and ethical thought, and analyzes its significance for the translation of primatological research into legal arguments. Drawing on Nonhuman Rights Project case files and scientific publications, I analyze three historical phases: (1) anatomical studies establishing taxonomic boundaries through brain structure; (2) twentieth-century legal shifts from pain-based welfare to cognition-based protections; and (3) Tommy's case as exemplifying the co-production of scientific understanding and legal personhood concepts. This analysis reveals how scientific knowledge, legal precedents, and ethical claims about nonhuman primate minds co-emerged, bringing new terminology and expertise to courts and reshaping human-animal relations.

Author

• Shira Shmuely