Ecofeminist approaches to the protection of whales in international law

The chapter analyses, from an ecofeminist legal perspective, the protection of whales in international law, with specific reference to indigenous hunting activities. In this regard, the contribution develops an innovative legal reading of Greta Gaard’s essay ‘Tools or a Cross-Cultural Feminist Ethics: Exploring Ethical Contexts and Contents in the Makah Whale Hunt’, published in 2001. In her essay, Greta Gaard captured the key legal issues of the debate, demonstrating the need for a paradigm shift in law, in particular international law, so that non-human animals can be considered as subjects rather than mere objects of law.