Researcher in the Spotlight: Elina Raitanen

Name: Elina Raitanen
Position in the Faculty: University Teacher, Doctoral Researcher
Degrees: LLM
Fields of interest: Legal theory and -philosophy, ecology, sustainable future for the planet, and the significance of law, creativity, and art as intertwined drivers and participants in societal change.

Describe your career path. What led you to where you are today? 

After graduation, my supervisor suggested I applied for doctoral studies. This came as a surprise, as I didn’t trust my abilities, but the suggestion resonated deeply, nonetheless. Before diving into research, I tried my wings as a legal trainee at a law firm and as a substitute contract lawyer. I also briefly worked at the Parliament of Finland. After receiving three years of funding through the national “Law in a Changing World” doctoral program, I transitioned to full-time dissertation research. That period was both eye-opening and rewarding. However, I realized I wasn’t yet ready to present my research ideas on the scale of a dissertation. When the funding ended, I took a three-year research position (a substitute role) at a sectoral research institute. I hoped to finish my dissertation there. Although the work community was excellent, the job description differed enough from my own research interests that my dissertation didn’t really progress during that time. When the substitute position ended, I experienced a kind of identity crisis—not only as a legal professional but also as a person, due to the loss of a loved one. I moved again to a new town and completed court training. After that, an opportunity opened to return to the faculty as a teacher, and I seized it. In many ways, it felt like coming home.

What kind of projects are you currently working on?
At the moment, I work as a university teacher (also a substitute position) and as a doctoral researcher. In my dissertation, I examine the potential of law to foster ecological-social integrity and resilience. Through the research process, the analysis of our legal relationship with nature has emerged as a particular focal point. I’m currently writing the introduction to my article-based dissertation. Occasionally, I participate in funding applications (currently involved in a multidisciplinary creative application), so it would be lovely to join a project again after a long time.

Have your interests evolved since your studies?
Perhaps they’ve simply broadened.

What would you be, if you were not a researcher?
Since I probably wouldn’t be Mirkka Rekola or Jean-Paul Gaultier anyway, I would probably be a palliative care physician. Transformation, metamorphosis, transitions, and the unknown have always fascinated me. In our society, vulnerability—which I understand both as the intensity of life and existence, and as simultaneous fragility and transience—makes our existence on Earth beautiful and unique. Nowadays, I feel vulnerability is overly pathologized and isolated from life through intellectualization and diagnoses. The transition to death as the endpoint of life after birth closes the circle and leads us to the edge of the unknown—somewhere beyond the reach of knowledge. I see this same mystique as the lost core of our relationship with nature. As an environmental law researcher, I delve into terrains of multidisciplinary and philosophical depth, and I understand the palliative care physician as someone who steps away from the compulsion to sustain human-centered survival—embracing encounters and dialogue where the unknown and the uncontrollable teach us to live in greater harmony with each other and the world.

What inspires you?
Ideas, untamed, creative and authentic people. Nature. Books. Poetry. Art in general.