3Rs in Swiss Law

3Rs are not just an ethical concept or a scientific quality standard, but – in Switzerland (as well as in the EU and many other jurisdictions) – applicable, binding law. The democratically legitimised legislature has made the 3Rs principles in all respects being a prerequisite for the approval of animal experiments. Animal experiments without the 3Rs would be illegal.

Could the 3Rs law potentially lose effectiveness due to a lack of clarity/information about the legal situation?
If so, this website aims to change that and provide some clarification.

So what do legal texts say about 3Rs? What are the relevant court decisions? What do 3Rs practicioners from different disciplines say about 3Rs law? How do they observe the law in practice? And what does the Federal Government say?

In the initial phase, this homepage is intended to answer these questions, to provide an overview of the legal situation regarding the 3Rs and present perspectives from different disciplines and stakeholders on the 3Rs law. Please note: This homepage will be expanded.  In a second phase, the research results of the subprojects of our NRP79 project “3Rs in Swiss Law” will be presented and explained here. Nicole Lüthi and Katerina Stoykova will present their results and key findings from their dissertations here after completing their dissertation projects. Stay tuned.

This homepage is part of the NRP79 project “3Rs in Swiss Law”: Link to our NRP79 research project.