Insights as a Platform for Legal Scholarship: Reflections from the Dean

Insights has reached the one-year mark since its launch. The platform has grown fast. Instead of taking its first teetering steps, it is already running, offering a window into the intellectual life of our community. Insights reflects what the Faculty is: a vibrant forum where scholarship, critical minds, fresh ideas, and students meet a rapidly changing world.

Insights portrays what we do as a scholarly community. Legal scholars are increasingly called to rethink how law and the rule of law survive and adapt in the face of rapid digitalization, urgent ecological crises, and shifting geopolitical landscapes. Technological, ecological, and social challenges drive our research. Insights articles have explored the implications of AI in various contexts, discussed datafication and its consequences, analyzed the power of law in tackling ecological harms, evaluated the constitutionality of school phone bans, and unpacked the state’s obligation to redress past injustices.

A vibrant community constantly buzzes with activity and engages with new ideas. We had cause for celebration: Daniela Alaattinoğlu was the recipient of the prestigious Nils Klim Prize in June. Insights also reported how students engaged with art and produced wonderful law-inspired artwork in the second iteration of our Law & Art course. We also widened our horizons at the Legal Design Summit, a unique, global, volunteer-powered conference.

Insights highlights our diversity, the very core of our DNA. In Insights, you will read articles from distinguished professors who have spent decades mastering their fields, as well as early-career researchers from all around the globe who are challenging old paradigms with fresh perspectives. This blend of experience, curiosity, and diverse viewpoints is what makes our Faculty unique. It reflects our core values: we are calm in our analysis, critical in our thinking, and open to the world around us.

I hope that Insights in 2025 offered its readers fresh ideas, insights, and, above all, perspective. Whether you are an alumnus, a prospective student, a colleague, or simply a curious citizen, I invite you to read Insights in 2026, reflect, and join the conversation.

Welcome to our Insights community!

Mika Viljanen

Mika Viljanen is a Professor of Private Law and Dean at the Faculty of Law, University of Turku.