Seminar

Animal Law Centre hosts a monthly a research seminar.

The seminar has been running since January 2021, and has monthly meetings, typically on the last Wednesday of each month.

The purpose of the seminar is to bring together academics and students interested in animal law and to offer them a platform to discuss their research. The seminar also functions as a medium through which our researchers will regularly report about their ongoing work as the project unfolds. The seminar is open to everyone. Seminar presentations can be given in English and Finnish.

Sessions begin at 4:15 pm and end at 5:45 pm (EET/EEST). Participants may attend either in person at the University of Helsinki premises or virtually over Zoom. The seminar will be on summer recess during June, July, and August.

The easiest way to get updates on the seminar is to join our mailing list. This can be done by emailing animallaw@helsinki.fi.

The monthly seminar on animal law will reconvene in September. Many thanks to all of the presenters and participants! 

Spring 2024

28.2. Gao Yang: Legal Aspects of Farm Animals in China, from Ancient to Modern Times

27.3. Raffael Fasel: Sentience-based democracy

24.4. Julia Sundström: TBA

5.6. Pamela Frasch: TBA

Past sessions

11.10. Ankita Shanker: Human Exceptionalism and the Fallacies that Ground It

1.11. Iyan Offor: Book Launch – Iyan Offor, Global Animal Law from the Margins: International Trade in Animals and their Bodies (Routledge 2023)

29.11. Silvina Pezzetta: Exploring the foundations of the progressive animal rights Argentinean caselaw

14.12. P. Sean Morris: Commodification Moralism: The Economic Activities of the Animal Kingdom in International Tribunals

25.1. Marcia Condoy Truyenque: An Analysis of the Estrellita Constitutional Case from an Animal Rights Perspective

22.2. Elien Verniers: Towards New Legal Approaches for Animal (Welfare) Rights

29.3. Diego Sánchez: How to Make the Fundamental Rights of Other Species Practicable? The Behavioral Approach

26.4. Outi Ratamäki: Policy integration of animal law and policy – a good or a bad idea?

30.5. Paulien Christiaenssen: Equality, Proportionality and Governmental Due Care in Animal Welfare Law

28.9. S. Marek Muller: Crafting the Litigious Event: Naruto v Slater and the Public Screening of Animal Personhood

19.10. Anna Caramuru: Nonhuman Animals as Plaintiffs in Brazil: an analysis based on the Ethics of Care and Ecophenomenology

30.11. Marina Baptista Rosa: Constitutional Animal Protection: The Brazilian Experience

14.12. Ethan Prall: Some Implications of Recognizing Animals as Legal Subjects in the United States

7.2. Gustav Stenseke Arup: Wolves as lawmakers? Understanding legal protection of wolves as co-produced by humans, wolves and other entangled bodies in the landscape

23.2. Charlotte Blattner: Global Animal Law: A Critical Evaluation of the what, why, and how

23.3. Julia Johansson: Animal testing as a tool under chemical risk regulation: A posthuman critique

27.4. Carolina Leiva Ilabaca: The Paths of Subjectivity: Theoretical Arguments for Animal (legal) Rights

23.5. Veerle Platvoet: Into the Wild: Legal Welfarism and Wild Animals

29.9. Tero Kivinen (University of Helsinki): Eläinoikeuden retoriikka

27.10. Celia Karlin O'Sullivan (Åbo Akademi University): The Elephant in the Room: Comparing the Natural Behavior of Elephants in Swedish Circuses and Zoos with a Critical Legal Perspective

24.11. Tarja Koskela (University of Eastern Finland): Onko syyttämättäjättäminen kohtuuttomuusperusteella eläimiin kohdistuneissa rikoksissa sittenkään kohtuullista?

14.12. Uusi eläinten hyvinvointilaki: keskustelutilaisuus

27.1. Birgitta Wahlberg (Åbo Akademi University): Animal Law: Present State & Future Prospects

24.2. Ankita Shanker (University of Lucerne, currently visiting University of Helsinki): Rights-Holding Persons

31.3. Marianna Muravyeva (University of Helsinki): Sex with animals or sexual abuse of animals? Legal protection of animal’s inviolability

28.4. Veera Koponen (University of Helsinki): Eläinoikeus ja Suomen valtiosääntö (in Finnish)

26.5. Eva Bernet Kempers (University of Antwerp): Beyond hedonism: dignity as a general principle of animal law