Finland

Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University

The Institute for Human Rights is part of the Department of Law at the Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Its main areas of research are the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples; economic and social rights; non-discrimination; fundamental standards of humanity; participation and democracy; and human rights in domestic legal systems. The Institute is the Finnish documentation centre for literature on human rights and a Council of Europe depository library for information concerning the European Convention on Human Rights. The website is in English.

Finnish Bar Association

Website of the Finnish Bar Association, an organisation representing advocates in Finland. The site makes freely available in HTML an English language version of the Act on Advocates 1958, which first established and now regulates the Association. There are also full details of the membership requirements and the by-laws of the Association, covering topics such as the board, delegation, accounts and auditing, chapters, dues, arbitration, duties of a member, disciplinary procedures, appeals and miscellaneous provisions.

Parliament of Finland

This is the website of the parliament of Finland (Suomen Eduskunta). The site provides details of the parliament's history, speakers, committees, parties and the electoral system, alongside information about international cooperation and the parliament's relations with the EU. There is a searchable directory of members of parliament, a collection of statistical data on parliament and a diagram showing the organisation of the Parliamentary Office, depicting the hierarchical relationships between various parliamentary bodies.

Finlex

Collection of freely accessible Finnish law databases produced under the auspices of the Finnish Ministry of Justice (Oikeusministeri¸). Finlex has an English language interface outlining the nature of the legislative materials included, however the majority of texts are only available in Finnish, Swedish or Sami. It encompasses all laws and decrees published in the Finnish Statute Series since 1987 and compilations of laws and statutes published before 1987. Texts of legislation published after 1995 are available to download in PDF format.

Åland Parliament

Official website of the Parliament of the Islands of Åland (Åland Lagting). The Åland islands lie in the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden and have historically been of great strategic importance. This strongly influenced their achievement of a neutralised and demilitarized autonomy in 1922, when the Parliament was established.

Act On The Autonomy Of Åland

The Act on the Autonomy of Åland (in Swedish), on the website of the legislative Assembly of the Åland Islands. Åland lies between Finland and Sweden. The Act of Autonomy first came into force in 1922; it was completely revised in 1951 and 1993 and is available here as last amended on July 12 1996. Although it is not equivalent to a constitution, it is described as "constitutional in nature".

Legal system of Finland

This section of the Finnish Ministry of Justice (Oikeusministeri¸) website outlines various aspects of the legal system in Finland. There is historical information giving background to the legal system, identifying its Western and Eastern influences and describing the resulting rule of Law. Links are given to the various state legal authorities including the Chancellor of Justice, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Consumer Ombudsman and the Ombudsman for Equality. There is information on the Constitution along with links to full text versions in a range of languages.

Finnish aviation legislation

Official website of the Finnish Transport Safety Agency, section on aviation regulations. Features details of the aviation legislation and regulations affecting Finland(international, EU and national). Links are given to the Aviation Act(in English) and to EU webpages featuring relevant legislation.

Subscribe to Finland