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Pamela Vesilind
Faculty
Online Faculty

Pamela A. Vesilind JD'08

Assistant Professor of Law
Animal Law

LLM in Agricultural & Food Law, University of Arkansas School of Law, 2013

JD, Vermont Law School, 2008

BA, Guilford College, 1991

Curriculum Vitae

Pamela A. Vesilind JD'08

Biography

Pamela Vesilind is an assistant professor at VLS, offering residential courses in Civil Procedure I and II, Administrative Law, Professional Responsibility, and courses in Animal Law (Law of Animals in Agriculture; Animals & the Law). She has taught and designed courses with the VLS online program since 2012, mostly in the area of food and agriculture. Prior to rejoining the VLS faculty in 2018, Pamela practiced animal law in North Carolina, representing individuals and nonprofit organizations, and focusing on the legal needs of pet owners in underserved communities. She earned an LL.M., with honors, in Food & Agriculture Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law, where she also visited to teach Remedies, Advanced Writing (Civil Pre-Trial Documents), Environmental Law, and Bar Exam Substance & Strategies. Between 2009-2012, Pamela designed and ran 1L programming as assistant director of the VLS Academic Success Program, and taught the Animal Law Seminar and Property. After receiving her J.D., cum laude, from Vermont Law School, she clerked for the Vermont trial court in the chambers of the Honorable Dennis Pearson. Pamela’s research and scholarship focuses on industrial animal production and the constitutional implications of regulating animal treatment at the federal and state levels. She is licensed to practice in Vermont and North Carolina. Pamela and her (mostly) four-legged family live in a log cabin at the top of a hill in South Royalton, VT.

Publications

Articles

"State by State: Setting Farmed Animal Welfare Standards" (with Bailey Soderberg), Vermont Journal of Environmental Law (December 2021).

Animal Husbandry Redux: Redefining “Acceptable Agricultural Practices” for Locally-Sourced Foods, 28 ABA Nat. Resources & Env’t 37 (Fall 2013).

Pre-Empting Humanity: Why National Meat Association v. Harris Answered the Wrong Question, 65 ME. L. Rev. 311 (Spring 2013).

Emerging Constitutional Threats to Food Labeling Reform, 17 Nexus: Chap. J. L. & Pol’y 59 (2012).

Continental Drift: Agricultural Trade & the Widening Gap between European Union & United States Animal Welfare Laws, 12 VT. J. Envtl. L. 223 (Winter 2011).

NAFTA’s Trojan Horse & the Demise of the Mexican Hog Industry, 42 U. Miami Int.-Am. L. Rev. 2 (Summer 2011).

Animal Law, Obscenity, & the Limits of Government Censorship, 4 Char. L. Rev. 59 (2009) (coauthored with Cheryl Hanna).

Chapters

Chapter, Downward Harmonization: NAAEC and Industrial Livestock Production in Mexico, in NAFTA and Sustainable Development: The History, Experience, and Prospects for Implementation (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015).

Presentations

"The CAFO Version 2.0: Alternate Realities in Administrative Law," Hot Topics in Environmental Law Lecture Series, Vermont Law School (June 2021).