On June 8th, 2026 Visa Kurki, Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Helsinki, delivered the eighth annual 2026 Tom Regan Memorial Lecture.

The title of Visa’s lecture was “From Unnecessary Suffering to Utopia: Animal Law Between Realism and Idealism.” It was followed by responses from (left to right):

• Eva Bernet-Kempers, Postdoctoral Researcher Animal Law, University of Antwerp, Belgium
• Professor Angela Fernandez, Director of the Animal Law Program, Henry N. R. Jackman Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Canada
• Silvina Pezzetta, CONICET, UBA, Visiting Researcher Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
• Werner Scholtz, Head of School and Professor of Global Environmental Law, University of Southampton, U.K.

You can watch the lecture here, or by clicking below.