Conference: Nordic Legal Traditions and the Changing European Context

The Matthias Calonius Society, the association of Finnish legal historians, will celebrate its 20th birthday this year by organising an international conference on the ”Nordic Legal Traditions and the Changing European Context.” The event will take place on the 19^th of May in Calonia, the Law Faculty building at the University of Turku (street address: Vänrikinkatu 2), and it is open to the public.

The conference will focus on the changes of academic legal history in the Nordic countries. The presentations will deal with the effects of the European legal tradition on Scandinavian legal history (Jussi Sallila, Helsinki), the development legal history teaching in Finland (Mia Korpiola, Helsinki) and in Norway (Dag Michalsen, Oslo), and the relationship of the Baltic legal history vis-à-vis the Nordic countries and its treatment of the Soviet legal past (Marju Luts, Tartu).

Matthias Calonius (1738–1817) was Professor of Law at the Academy of Turku and Finland’s Procutator. He is known as the founder of Finnish legal science, and he played a pivotal part in the drafting of the Finnish constitutional structure when Finland was annexed to the Russian Empire as a Grand-Duchy in 1809. Calonius thus exerted significant influence on the shaping of the Finnish legal culture. The theme of the conference, the construction of legal traditions and identities, stood in the center of Calonius’s interests.

Registrations and inquiries: Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen at marianne.vasara-aaltonen@helsinki.fi by 3rd of May. Please notify if you wish to attend the conference dinner.