Aping Justice

Chimpanzees have more rights than Guantánamo Bay detainees or African-Americans who look at a peace officer wrong, according to the ruling of a Manhattan supreme court judge. Two chimps have been granted a writ of habeas corpus against their alleged illegal detention by Stony Brook University. According to lawyers for the Non-human Rights Project, which brought the case, the writ implicitly recognises the apes as persons; but it is as yet unclear whether the USA intends to add court cases against violent, larcenous or otherwise nefarious animals to its already impressive repertoire of mediaeval customs. There is also likely to be controversy over how the ruling will affect the case of George W Bush, should the International Criminal Court ever decide that non-Africans can be war criminals.