--- title: Chimpanzee a 'Legal Person'? Court Set to Decide description: A New York appeals court will begin hearing a case Wednesday that could determine if a chimpanzee has a legal status akin to personhood canonical: https://time.com/3481383/chimpanzee-legal-rights-personhood/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-08T14:51:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:39:11.953Z article:section: Science og:title: Chimpanzee a 'Legal Person'? Court Set to Decide og:description: A New York appeals court will begin hearing a case Wednesday that could determine if a chimpanzee has a legal status akin to personhood og:url: https://time.com/3481383/chimpanzee-legal-rights-personhood/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f71f6ae3ee9bcc1/69875f303c1639a85e44ee0b/78590897.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Tarongas Animals Receive Christmas Treats og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chimpanzee a 'Legal Person'? Court Set to Decide twitter:description: A New York appeals court will begin hearing a case Wednesday that could determine if a chimpanzee has a legal status akin to personhood twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f71f6ae3ee9bcc1/69875f303c1639a85e44ee0b/78590897.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Is a Chimpanzee a 'Legal Person'? Court Set to Decide  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Oct 8, 2014 2:51 PM UTC  SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 20: A chimpanzee receives a Christmas treat at Taronga Zoo on December 20, 2007 in Sydney, Australia.Taronga Zoo celebrated Christmas early giving treats to the zoo's giraffes, Kodiak Bears, chimpanzees and lions providing a wonderful natural display for zoo visitors. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images) SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 20: A chimpanzee receives a Christmas treat at Taronga Zoo on December 20, 2007 in Sydney, Australia.Taronga Zoo celebrated Christmas early giving treats to the zoo's giraffes, Kodiak Bears, chimpanzees and lions providing a wonderful natural display for zoo visitors. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)Lisa Maree Williams—Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Oct 8, 2014 2:51 PM UTC A New York appeals court will begin hearing a landmark case on Wednesday that could determine if a chimpanzee has a legal status akin to personhood, thereby making its captivity unlawful. Animal rights lawyer Steven Wise filed the lawsuit in 2013 on behalf of Tommy, a 26-year-old chimpanzee kept by a private owner in upstate New York. The lawsuit alleged that keeping the chimpanzee in captivity was unlawful, because a chimpanzee was not merely a possession of the owner, but rather “a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned.” As such, the case called upon the court to grant Tommy the status of “legal personhood,” thereby extending the fundamental human right of habeas corpus, or the right to not be unlawfully imprisoned, to a primate. The case grabbed headlines, [including](http://science.time.com/2013/12/02/chimps-human-rights-lawsuit/) TIME’s, for its ambitious attempt to blur a longstanding legal distinction between humans and animals. The organization pressing the case, the Nonhuman Rights Project, has [stated](http://science.time.com/2013/12/02/chimps-human-rights-lawsuit/) that the case will not end with Tommy: “Our goal is, very simply, to breach the legal wall that separates all humans from all nonhuman animals.” Chimpanzee a 'Legal Person'? 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