About the Speaker

Tomasz Pietrzykowski is a professor of law specializing in legal theory and philosophy of law. He lectures at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia in Katowice and is the Head of the Research Center for Public Policy and Regulatory Governance. His publications cover an intersection of law with bioethics, philosophy, medicine, and public policy. He is also a former chairman of the Polish National Ethics Committee on Animal Experimentation and the deputy chairman of the Bioethics Committee of the Silesian Medical Chamber. His recent books include ‘Personhood Beyond Humanism. Animals, Chimeras, Autonomous Agents and the Law’ (2018) and ‘The Foundations of Animal Law. Concepts – Principles – Dilemmas’ (2023).

About the Topic

The most significant achievement and legacy of late 20th-century developments in animal law is the so-called legal dereification of animals. In numerous legal systems worldwide, the status of animals as objects (movable property) has been abolished. While this represents a notable moral advance, dereification alone has not resolved the fundamental question of animals' ultimate legal status. They remain positioned between the categories of things and persons. Furthermore, there are ongoing efforts—through judicial rulings and radical legislative reforms—to elevate animals to the status of rights-holding persons. Is such a transformation a realistic, well-considered, and desirable goal for the future evolution of animal law? Or might alternative approaches better address the moral and conceptual complexities underlying legal regulation of animals?

About the Series

National and international guests speak on the state, development and future of the legal landscape concerning the human-animal relationship. It is the series’ aim to build bridges – between national and international lines of discourse, between animal rights and animal welfare law, between animal rights and rights of nature, between legal scholarship and the natural sciences and civil society.

The lecture will be held as a hybrid event, i.e. you are welcome to participate either in person at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Mittelweg 187, 20148 Hamburg, or via Zoom.

If you choose to participate online, you will receive the login details the day before the event. Please confirm upon registration that you agree to the use of Zoom and that you will not record the event. By attending the event you confirm that you have read and agreed to Zoom’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

If you choose to participate in person, please let us know in case your plans change or you are unable to attend at short notice.