CV

CURRENT PROJECTS

A textbook (in Finnish) on legal methodology, together with Pauli Rautiainen, Tapio Määttä, Niko Soininen and Aura Kostiainen.

Working papers on the legal status of animals.

Themes: social ontology and its applications in legal contexts; animal law and animal law theory.

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT AND OCCUPATIONS

January 2022–: Associate Professor of Jurisprudence, Law Faculty, University of Helsinki

September 2019–December 2021: Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Fellow, Law Faculty, University of Helsinki

September 2018–August 2019: Core Fellow, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

January 2018–July 2018: University Lecturer in Public Law, University of Tampere

2014–: Affiliated or visiting lecturer at various universities (University of  Tampere, Åbo Akademi University, University of Eastern Finland)

EDUCATION

2014–2017: PhD (Legal Philosophy, approved without corrections), University of Cambridge

2011–2012 Master of Laws, University of Helsinki

2009–2011 Bachelor of Laws, Åbo Akademi University

AWARDS

2018: Yorke Prize by Cambridge Law Faculty for PhD dissertation.

2018: Salje Medal by Clare Hall, Cambridge, for the best PhD in the Arts and Social Sciences in 2017.

2014: Kone Foundation full scholarship for doctoral research (3+1 years)

2014: Award by the Finnish Lawyers’ Society for best article written by a young scholar (€2000, “young scholar” meaning under 35 years old)

2012: Award by the Finnish Legal Association for one of the best published articles of 2011 (€600)

2010: Award by Åbo Akademi University for academic excellence (€500)

PRESENTATIONS

“A Bird’s-eye View to Animals in the Law”, European Animal Rights Law conference, Cambridge, September 2022.

“Challenges in securing legal personhood of animals in an anthropocentric legal system”, webinar series Aligning Perspectives in Animal Law, Animal Law Centre (NALSAR University of Law), September 2022.

“Benjamin Sachs on the Legal Status of Animals”, Workshop on Contractarianism, Role Obligations, and Political Morality, St Andrews, September 2022.

“Julian Jonker on Rights”, Oxford Jurisprudence Conference, Oxford, July 2022.

“Alf Ross and other Legal Theorists of Animal Rights”, Spanish-Finnish Seminar in Legal Theory, Helsinki, June 2022.

“A Bird’s-eye View to Animals in the Law”, Animal Law Theory conference, Helsinki, June 2022.

“Reconceptualizing Legal Personhood and Animal Rights”, keynote speaker, Congresso Internacional de Direitos Animais, April 2022.

“Analytic Jurisprudence and the Question of AI Legal Personhood”, keynote speaker, Artificial Decision-Making, University of Münster, February 2022.

“What is Animal Dignity, Anyway?”, keynote speaker, Antwerp Conference on Animal Dignity, October 2021.

“A Theory of Legal Personhood: Central Themes”, invited speaker, Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures, University of Lodz, May 2021.

“Can Anything Be a Legal Person? Some Doubts”, invited speaker, Law-Language-Philosophy Research Network monthly talk, December 2020.

“Legal and Non-legal Corporations”, Maastricht Law and Philosophy Platform talk series, November 2020.

“Group Agents as Corporations”, MANCEPT workshop “Law, Agency and Collective Lives”, September 2020.

“Some Doubts about Environmental Personhood”, invited speaker, conference “Private Rights of Nature”, University of Amsterdam, May 2020.

“What is a Legal Thing?”, invited speaker, Lund University, talk series on ownership, February 2020.

“A Taxonomy of Collective Rights”, MANCEPT workshop “Debating Rights”, September 2019.

“Legal Power and Legal Competence”, IVR World Conference, July 2019.

“Are Legal Positivism and the Interest Theory of Rights Compatible?”, Workshop in Honour of Matthew Kramer, July 2019.

“En ny syn på rättssubjektet”, Nordiska Förmögenhetsrättsdagarna 8-10.5.2019.

“Voiko tekoäly olla oikeussubjekti?” (“Can an AI Be a Legal Person?”), Finnish Lawyers’ Society Meeting, January 2019.

“Tekoälyt juridisina henkilöinä” (AIs as Legal Persons), Tekoäly, ihminen ja yhteiskunta -seminaari, Tampereen yliopisto 18.1.2019.

“A Theory of Legal Personality”, yearly conference of the Swedish Association for Legal Philosophy, May 2018 (invited keynote speaker).

“Can Chimpanzees and Rivers Be Legal Persons? A Theory of Legal Personality”, Leicester Legal Theory Cluster Seminar, May 2018 (invited speaker).

“Oikeuksien intressiteorian puolustus” (“A Defense of the Interest Theory of Rights”), workshop “Oikeudet filosofiassa ja oikeustieteessä”, Helsinki, December 2017.

“Theories of Rights”, Uppsala University, May 2017.

“The Persons of Law: Should We Update Our Views?”, Uppsala University, April 2017.

“A Short History of the Right-Holding Person”, University of Helsinki, Facutly of Law, November 2016.

“Revisiting Legal Personhood”, VI Spanish-Finnish Seminar in Legal Theory, University of Eastern Finland, June-July 2016.

“On the History of the Person–Thing Divide”, Persons and Things Workshop, University of Turku, May 2016 (invited speaker).

“Two Senses of ‘Legal Person’: Why Animals Can Be Legal Persons but Rivers Cannot”, Edinburgh Legal Theory Seminar Series, March 2016.

”Legal Personality of Corporations: Lessons from Social Ontology”, Oxford Jurisprudence Discussion Group, January 2016.

“How Can Corporations Be Legal Persons?”, Moral and Political Philosophy Seminar, University of Helsinki, December 2015.

“Gaius, Leibniz, Austin: How Legal Personality Became Associated with Right-Holding”, Cambridge Legal History Seminar, October 2015.

“Why Things Can Hold Rights: Reconceptualizing the Legal Person”, Special Workshop on Personhood, World Conference of Legal and Political Philosophy (IVR), August 2015.

“Not Just Legal Fictions: Corporations and Group Agency”, Cambridge Private Law Centre, Work in Progress Seminar, March 2015.

“How Can Corporations Be Legal Persons? Lessons from Social Ontology”, Cambridge Political Philosophy Workshop, February 2015.

“A Proposed Framework for Legal Personhood”, Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy monthly seminar, December 2014.

“Not just Right-Holding: Reconceptualizing the Legal Person”, Yale Law School Doctoral Scholarship Conference, November 2014.

“Animal Rights”, Summer Seminar of the Finnish Organisation for Legal Policy, August 2014.

“Rights for Animals: a Jurist’s Perspective”, presentation at an animal rights seminar in Turku, Finland, February 2013.

ACADEMIC REFEREE

Oxford University Press (book proposal), Springer (book manuscript), Journal of Business Ethics, Philosophical Quarterly, Oikeus, Ratio Juris, Revus, AI & Society.

EVENT ORGANIZER

Co-convener, Spanish-Finnish Seminar in Legal Theory, Helsinki 2022.

Co-convener, Theory of Animal Law, conference, Helsinki 2022.

Convener, The Contours of Legal Personhood, online workshop, November 2020.

Co-convener, workshop “Law, Agency and Collective Lives”, part of MANCEPT workshops, September 2020.

Co-convener, conference “SELF: Theoretical Approaches to Subjectivity, Personhood, and Agency”, May 2020 (cancelled).

Co-convener, “(Legal) Animal Rights” special workshop, IVR World Conference, July 2019.

Co-convener, Workshop in Honour of Matthew Kramer, July 2019.

Co-convener, Legal Philosophy Spring Seminar, May 2019.

Co-convener, Finnish-Swedish Doctoral Conference on Legal Reasoning, December 2018.

Co-convener, “Oikeudet filosofiassa ja oikeustieteessä” workshop, December 2017.

Main convener of Cambridge Doctoral Workshop in Legal Theory, June 2015.

Co-organizer of talk series “Talking Animals, Law and Philosophy” at Cambridge Law Faculty, 2015–2016.

OTHER PROJECTS

Editor-in-Chief, Global Journal of Animal Law, 2016–2018.

Member of the working group of “The Trial”, a play assessing the legal status of animals, 2014.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Finnish: first language

English: excellent skills

Swedish: excellent skills (subsequent reading comprehension in Danish and Norwegian)

French: very good reading comprehension; good oral and writing skills

German: very good reading comprehension

Russian: good skills