The purpose of this chapter is to give the reader an overview of where some of the ethical debates around animals and international law are found. In part, the chapter builds upon my earlier work in this area. At the time of writing this text, I approached the issue of ethics and international environmental law, as most doctoral students do, in a very theoretical manner. Accordingly, when I came to the topic of ‘animal rights’ I spent considerable time examining the work of the great thinkers in this area, such as Peter Singer and Tom Regan.