News
Elina Pirjatanniemi Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Law by Uppsala University
The Faculty Board of the Faculty of Law at Uppsala University has appointed Antje du Bois-Pedain, Cambridge, and Elina Pirjatanniemi, Turku, as honorary doctors of law at the 2026 winter conferment ceremony.
Elina Pirjatanniemi is a professor of constitutional law and international law at Åbo Akademi University and director of the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University. Elina Pirjatanniemi is also docent of criminal law at the University of Turku.
Her research interests include human rights, migration law, criminal law, the relationship between national and international law, and the relationship between human rights and environmental considerations. She is a leading figure in the Nordic countries in the fields of human rights and migration. She has led and continues to lead a number of scientific projects, often with an interdisciplinary profile, and is a highly productive researcher with a large number (over 200) of publications. She also regularly participates in public debate and writes columns in Finnish newspapers such as Hufvudstadsbladet. For several years, she has also served as a member of the Swedish Research Council’s assessment committee for law, philosophy, ethics and criminology. Pirjatanniemi has received several awards for her work in human rights and was appointed Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2019.
The grounds for the decision are as follows:
Professor Elina Pirjatanniemi is appointed honorary doctor of law for her legal research in international law and public law, with a particular focus on human rights, which constitutes a significant contribution to legal science while also contributing to a fact-based and reliable public debate.
Professor Antje du Bois-Pedain isProfessor of Criminal Law and Philosophy at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, Deputy Director of the Centre for Penal Theory and Ethics at the Institute of Criminology, and a Fellow of Magdalene College. She is awarded for her successful research in the field of criminal law theory and her strong commitment to maintaining and developing international contacts in the field of criminal law and criminal law philosophy.
The University’s honorary doctors are awarded honorary degrees at the winter graduation ceremony, which will take place on 30 January 2026 in the University Hall in Uppsala.
