Running Amok: Taming, wildness, and captivity in legal struggles over elephants’ rights in Sri Lanka

This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork in Sri Lanka, where I closely followed animal rights advocates engaged in both legal and extra-legal interventions concerning captive elephants. It examines how these interventions give rise to forms of “lively legality,” as activists harness instances of elephant resistance—such as running amok or attempting to break free—to contest the legal classifications that underpin their subjugation to humans. Such acts of defiance not only unsettle the boundaries between captivity and domestication by introducing non-human agency into the public sphere, but they also serve as potent evidence in legal and political struggles over the rights and status of captive elephants. In doing so, they enable animal advocates to frame the issue as one of ethical justice, rather than merely attempting to extend liberal legal personhood by granting animals an “honorary” status with moral standing.