Public law research

• The boundaries of the exercise of public authority and legal liability
• The legal protection of clients in public administration, as well as fundamental and human rights in a changing world and society. We examine these themes, for example, in the context of artificial intelligence and Europeanisation. A central part of our thematic focus also addresses vulnerable groups and the field of welfare law.
• Interaction between public action and the market
• Special issues in security law, including cybersecurity, organisations’ security practices and security services
• International and EU energy law and regulation

In Public Law, we utilise typical legal research methods, such as doctrinal legal analysis and legal theory. We also have a long-standing tradition of comparative law, particularly within the Nordic context, and moreover several of our researchers possess specialised expertise in empirical legal research.

We work in close collaboration with several ministries, public authorities, courts, and both domestic and international universities and research institutes.Parliamentary Committees regularly call on our researchers for expert hearings. The collaboration is also interdisciplinary in nature.

Our partners include, for example, Nordiska Administrativa Förbundet (NAF), National Advisory Board on Civil Service Ethics, Association for European law, Public Procurement Association, Finnish Association for the Philosophy of Law (SOFY) expert network for elderly law (VAASI), Finnish and Nordic research networks for social law, Institute for Education Law (IfU, Uppsala university) . In the field of energy law the key partner are the Institute for Energy Law at the Centre for American and International Law, the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (FNREL), and the Association of International Energy Negotiators (AIEN) as well as Directorate General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE)), and the Ministry of Investment / Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) in Indonesia.  

In the field of security law, criminology, risk governance, resilience and standardisation our key partners are the Centre de Recherche sur la Justice Pénale et Pénitentiaire (CRJ2P) research group and the Institut Fédératif de Recherche sur les Transitions Juridiques (IFTJ) at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour as well as the Finnish Standards Association (SFS).