Oikeustieteen päivät in Turku

​This year, the Faculty of Law in the University of Turku hosted Oikeustieteen päivät. This conference on law and legal research is held biannually.

The theme of the conference was Law and Crises. Discourses on crises, threats, and exceptional and difficult times have increased in Finland, Europe and globally. At the conference, the interaction between law and crises was discussed from different perspectives. For example, the effects of economy, politics and social crises to the law were debated. What kind of impacts the talk about different kind of problems and crises has on the law, jurisprudence and legal praxis?

In her opening statement, Professor Anne Alvesalo-Kuusi considered that the law is often perceived as a suitable, cheap and easy tool to react to an unwanted phenomenon. As an example, she mentioned the tragic stabbings in Turku, after which there were many different suggestions claiming new and more strict legislation. For example, legislation on surveillance and intelligence is under pressure for the fast enactment. Critical analyses, in turn, have been disapproved or interpreted as ideological and naïve. Academics have been accused of preventing changes defined as necessary.

Professor Alvesalo-Kuusi noted that it is an essential task of legal scholars to scrutinize not only the possibilities but also the problems and dangers of legal solutions – especially in times of “crisis.”

Anneli Albi, Johanna Niemi and Janne Salminen

Invited key note speeches were given by Professor Anneli Albi (University of Kent), Academy Professor Johanna Niemi (University of Turku), Professor David Whyte (University of Liverpool), Associate Professor Vasuki Nesiah (New York University), Professor Beate Sjåfjell (University of Oslo) and Professor Iain Ramsay (University of Kent).