Venice Commission of the Council of Europe

Professor of Constitutional Law, Law Faculty, University of Helsinki

OVERVIEW

• Professor of Constitutional Law and Director for the Doctoral Programme in Law, University of Helsinki
• Member of the Venice Commission, Council of Europe; Chair of the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal, an impartial and independent judicial body appointed by the Government of Finland; and Member of the Management Board of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights
• Areas of research and expertise: Finnish and Nordic constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, EU law, international human rights law; a track record of over 20 years in directing and participating in multiple research projects and networks that include partners from several European countries
• Publication profile: over 120 scientific publications on domestic and comparative constitutional law, EU law and international human rights law

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

• Doctor of Laws, University of Helsinki, 1999
• Licentiate in Laws, University of Helsinki, 1993
• Master of Laws, University of Helsinki, 1990

ACADEMIC CAREER (FULL-TIME PROFESSOR-LEVEL POSITIONS ONLY)

• Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Helsinki, 2007-
• Professor of European Law, University of Turku, 2004-2007
• Professor of Public European Law, University of Helsinki, 2002-2004
• Professor of European Law, University of Helsinki, 1999-2002

RESEARCH FUNDING, LEADERSHIP AND SUPERVISION (SELECTED)

• Director for the Doctoral Programme in Law, University of Helsinki, 2022-2025
• Principal Investigator/Director, Research Consortium: Laws of Surveillance and Security: Constitutional Limits, Legislative Discourses and Transnational Influences, funded by the Academy of Finland, 1.1.2015-31.1.2019
• Director, Research Project on the Budgetary Powers of Finnish Parliament, ordered by the Audit Committee and funded by the Parliament of Finland, 1.12.2015-30.6.2016
• Principal Investigator, Research Project Human Rights: Law, Religion and Subjectivity 2009-2013, funded by the Academy of Finland, 2009-2013
•  Senior Scientist, funded by the Academy of Finland, 1.8.2010-31.7.2011
• Research Professor, Institute for Human Rights, Åbo Akademi University, 1.9.2009-31.8.2010, funded by the CoE in the Foundations of European Law and Polity
• Member, Broad of Directors, Network for European Studies, University of Helsinki, 1.1.2013-31.12.2016
• Supervisor of 10 active doctoral candidates at the moment; 15 supervisees have completed their PhD projects in law in the Universities of Helsinki and Turku; multiple appointments to act as the opponent or member of a doctoral thesis examination panel or preliminary examiner of PhD theses in law in various Finnish and other European universities

OTHER MAJOR ACADEMIC MERITS OR POSITIONS (SELECTED)

• Part-time Professor, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 2012-2015
• Member, the European Constitutional Law Network (ECLN) 2003-; the IACL’s Research Group on Constitutional Responses to Terrorism, 2011-; and IACL’s Research Group on Constitution-Making and Constitutional Change, 2013-
• Member, Centre of Excellence in Research in the Foundations of European Law and Polity, financed by the Academy of Finland, 2008-2013

SOCIETAL IMPACT OF RESEARCH, EXPERT ASSIGNMENTS (SELECTED)

• Expert, written expert opinions & hearings upon request to various committees of the Parliament of Finland on legislative proposals or other matters pending before Parliament for their relation to the Constitution, EU law and international human rights treaties; ca 600 hearings since 1999
• Senior Expert, FRANET, providing European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights with objective, reliable and comparable socio-legal data on fundamental rights issues to facilitate the Agency's work at EU level, 2010-2018
• Member, EU Network of Experts on Fundamental Rights; appointed by the European Commission to report on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union and its Member States and to assist the Commission and the European Parliament in the adoption of a human rights policy within the European Union, 2002-2006

MAJOR POSITIONS OF TRUST (SELECTED)

• Member, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (4- year term of office will expire on 9 May 2026)
• Chair, the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal, 17.6.2015-16.6.2019 and 1.8.2019-31.7.2023 (part-time office)
• Member, the Management Board of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (July 2020-June 2025)
• Ad hoc judge for Finland, the European Court of Human Rights, 2017-2022
• Member, Human Rights Delegation, Human Rights Centre, 2020-2024
• Member or permanent expert or secretary of several committees or working groups for constitutional amendments or legislative reforms since 1994
• Chair, the Finnish League for Human Rights, 2006-2010, vice-Chair 2010-2013

AWARDS, PRIZES AND HONORS (SELECTED)

• Teacher of the Year 2021, awarded by Pykälä ry, association of law students in the University of Helsinki
• PhD thesis prize by European Group of Public Law in 2000 for the PhD thesis in law ”The European Way. The Structure of National Court Obligation under EC Law” (1998)
• Best Article Prize 2005, ´Eurooppa-tuomioistuimet ja suomalaiset tuomioistuimet’ (‘European Courts and Finnish Courts’), Lakimies 7-8/2005
• Knight, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, 2015, awarded by the President of the Republic of Finland

RECENT PUBLICATIONS (SELECTED)

• Ojanen, T., The pluralist model of constitutional review in Finland: combining legislative and judicial institutions for the protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, in Miroslaw Granat (ed.), Constitutionality of Law Without a Constitutional Court, Routledge, (forthcoming Winter 2023)
• Ojanen, T., Equality and Non-discrimination in Human Rights Treaties and Nordic Constitutions, in Volume 68 on Equality, Scandinavian Studies in Law, 2022, 91-117
• Ojanen, T., Finland, in S. Griller, L. Papadopoulou and R. Puff (eds.), National Constitutions and EU Integration, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022, 727
• Ojanen, T. and Petkova, B. (eds.), Fundamental Rights Protection Online: the Future Regulation of Internet Intermediaries, Edward Elgar, 2020
• Ojanen T., Constitutional Unamendability in the Nordic Countries, European Journal of Law Reform, 2019 (21) 3, 385-402
• Ojanen, T. and Salminen, J., Finland: European Integration and International Human Rights Treaties as Sources of Domestic Constitutional Change and Dynamism, in A. Albi and S. Bardutzky (eds.),National Constitutions in European and Global Governance: Democracy, Rights, the Rule of Law, Springer Nature 2019, 359-404
• Ojanen, T., Human rights in the Nordic constitutions and impact of international obligations, in H. Krunke ja B. Thorarensen (eds.), The Nordic Constitutions – A Comparative and Contextual Study. Hart Publishing 2018, 133-166
• Ojanen, T., Rights-Based Review of Electronic Surveillance after Digital Rights Ireland and Schrems, in Cole, D., Fabbrini, F. and Schulhofer, S.  (eds.), Surveillance, Privacy and Transatlantic Relations, Hart Publishing, Oxford 2017
• Ojanen, T., The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as apprehended by Judges in Europe: FINLAND, in Burgorgue-Larsen, L. (ed.). Charte des droits fondamentaux saisie par les juges en Europe - The Charter of Fundamental Rights as apprehended by Judges in Europe. Paris: Editions A. Pedone 2017