The health, safety and well-being of our community members is very important to us.

We regret to inform you that owing to the current situation with COVID-19,

An Evening with Finnish Studies

&

Finnish Studies Scholarships Awards Ceremony 2020

has been postponed until further notice.

Once conditions permit, we will be in touch with further information about the possible rescheduling of this event.

In the meantime, please accept our apologies and our best wishes for your continued health and wellbeing.

WHO CAN SPEAK TRUTH 

ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION IN FINLAND?

Delivered by Dr. Ida Koivisto 

(University of Helsinki, Finland) 

Who can state what the constitution requires in Finland? The talk discusses constitutionality control in Finland and legal experts’ – primarily law professors – customary role in it. In Finland, the constitutionality control of proposed legislation takes place mainly in the Constitutional Law Committee of the Parliament. Judging from recent public debates, it seems that these experts are decreasingly appreciated. Why is this happening right now? The question is approached from three different angles: the authority of those experts to speak truth about constitution, the makeup of legal expertise and the politics of it. It is argued that while legal expertise per se, or its meaning in constitutionality control, has not really changed, the way it is perceived, has. There seems to be a tension between the legal experts’ perceived professional and political roles. Have people had enough of experts – also in Finland?

Ida Koivisto (PhD) is an assistant professor of public law at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests cover administrative and constitutional law, legal theory and socio-legal studies. She is particularly interested in the relationship between law and other normative systems in society. She is currently working on a project on the ideal of transparency and its theoretical preconditions. She is about to embark on a new project on law and algorithmic transparency.

Everyone Welcome! Reception with refreshments to follow!