Transformations in Law and Power

Director: Dr., Professor Veli-Pekka Viljanen, Faculty of Law, University of Turku, vpvilja@utu.fi

Website: http://www.law.utu.fi/en/research/researchprojects/valtaindex.html

Overview
European integration, internationalisation and privatisation have created challenges that do not seem to limit themselves only to concrete results emerging in social practices but also on the normative, typically constitutionally structured premises according to which those practices have traditionally been evaluated within the nation-state context.  The research project Transformations in Law and Power will analyse the legal significance of this change within the basic premises of legitimacy of modern law.

For appropriate focus, the project will concentrate on few specific areas of the normative framework that are deemed to be of central importance especially with regard to changes in the legitimate uses of power. These are 1) changing role of Finnish constitutionalism, 2) changing relationship between law and democracy in Finland and 3) changing modes of regulation especially with regard to privatisation. Accordingly, the project is implemented under three sub-projects, each gathered around two senior-researchers. Additional researchers of either post-doc or pre-doc statuses will be recruited during the project’s implementation. The subprojects are as follows.

A. Constitutionalisation in Finland
The main question of the first subproject will concern the significance of constitutional law, constitutionalist ideology and concrete constitutional argument in contemporary Finland and Europe. The group analyses whether the constitution and constitutionalist thinking can effectively respond to challenges of internationalisation and produce the required legitimacy to public governance. In terms of the research programme’s themes, the sub-project will address both the legitimate conditions of state power and the role of international system, especially that of the European Union, in constitutionalised practices.

The group is lead by professor Veli-Pekka Viljanen (University of Turku)  who will study the phenomena of constitutionalisation of legal order and the respective effects of the new Constitution on the power relationships in Finland.  The second senior-researcher, professor Tuomas Ojanen, will concentrate on the effects of European integration on the fundamental principles of the Finnish form of government.

B. Legal conditions of democracy
The second subproject will focus on the analysis of tensions and interrelations between different legally protected values, such as human rights and environmental interests on the one hand and traditional conceptions about appropriate spheres of law and democratic decision-making on the other. Included in the field of study are both the questions regarding the limits the internationally and constitutionally protected rights set for the majoritys decision making powers and the ability of different rights based arguments to function in bottom-up manner as a basis of empowerment of groups and interests that otherwise would be marginalized. The specific attention will be paid on the roles of economic and social rights and participatory rights.

The group is lead by professor Martin Scheinin (Åbo Akademi). Scheinin's research "human rights as a source of power" aims at answering the question whether the increased role of the national and international judiciary in deciding "political" issues in Finland results from the "objective" complexity of modern legal systems or whether possible changes in the respective powers of political and judicial authorities can be traced back to "subjective" decisions by identifiable actors. The second senior-researcher, professor Anne Kumpula, will analyse the role of participatory rights within the changes relating especially to environmental decision-making. The research will especially analyse the impact of Aarhus convention over the environmental decision-making processes in Finland.

C. The changing modes of regulation
The main focus of the research of the third subproject is the transformation of the legislative power, located traditionally on the nation state. Within this field of substance, one of the main tendencies of the current regulatory framework both nationally and universally relates to economically motivated multi-level privatisation. The subproject C, lead jointly by professors Markku Suksi (Åbo Akademi) and Jyrki Tala (University of Turku) will address these issues.  Professor Jyrki Tala's research will focus on the critical analysis of different modes of regulation, including self-regulation of economic entities whereas professor Markku Suksi will focus on the regulation of privatisation of public tasks.