On this day 115 years ago, on May 23, 1907, the Finnish Parliament met as a unicameral assembly for the first time, following an election earlier that same year. The election was made possible by the Parliament Act of the Grand Duchy of Finland (Landtdagsordning FFS 26/1906), which guaranteed the universal and equal right to […]
December 6, 1919, was the first year Finland celebrated its Declaration of Independence with a national holiday. That same year it also adopted the Constitution of 1919 officially making Finland a Republic with K.J. Stahlberg as its first president. This post describes the Constitution of 1919.
Just over 100 years ago, on December 6, 1917, Finland officially declared independence from Russia. The Declaration of Independence had been signed on December 4 by the Senate (then Finland’s highest governing body) and was adopted by the Finnish Parliament two days later. Work towards independence had commenced in March 1917 following the abdication of the Russian tsar. In […]
The following is a guest post by Robert Newlen, the Assistant Law Librarian for Collections, Outreach, and Services in the Law Library of Congress. Robert has previously blogged about Marsh’s Library, the National Library of Uzbekistan, Souvenirs from Moscow, and Humboldt University Law Faculty in our Pic of the Week series. On a recent trip to Finland, I spotted this colorful bookmobile. In addition to this […]
Today’s interview is with Michael Chalupovitsch, a foreign law specialist in the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress. Describe your background. I was born and raised in Montreal, Canada, home of the best bagels in the world! I come from a Jewish family; my father from Finland and my mother a […]
Today, June 9th, marks the Åland National Day, självstyrelsedagen, celebrated in honor of the law that made it independent in 1921: the Autonomy Act of 1920. Today, celebrations of this event includes eating Ålandic pancake (Ålandspannkaka). Åland is made up of more than 6,700 islands that form an archipelago in the Baltic Sea between Sweden […]
On March 23, 1962, the Helsinki Treaty on Nordic cooperation was signed by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, a date that has become known and celebrated as “Nordic Day.” The treaty legally entered into force on July 1, 1962. The Treaty formalized the longstanding Nordic collaboration and in particular the role of the Nordic […]
On March 10, 2022, at 2pm EST, Foreign Law Specialist Elin Hofverberg will present our next Foreign and Comparative Law webinar, “Green Energy in the Arctic: Regulatory Opportunities and Challenges in the Nordic Countries.” Please register here. Last year the Law Library published a report on Net Zero Emission Legislation Around the World. The report documents […]
Sunday, February 6, marks the Sámi National Day. The Sámi people are indigenous to Sápmi, an area that spans across northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The holiday inspired me to write a post about the recent return of a Sámi Drum to Norway. Last month, the Danish government transferred the legal ownership […]
This week, 501 years ago, between November 7 and 10, 1520, about one hundred people were executed in the town square in Stockholm, Sweden, in what became known as the Stockholm Bloodbath. A few days earlier, on November 4, 1520, King Christian II of Denmark, was crowned king of Sweden in Stockholm Cathedral. He was […]