Research

All teachers in the Master's Programme in International Business Law (IBL) are highly experienced and internationally oriented researchers in their own field of law. All research findings are published in esteemed national and international journals and other publications. Furthermore, most IBL teachers have been rewarded for their excellence in research.

Please note that you can no longer apply to the Master’s Programme in International Business Law. The programme will not admit any new students in the future.
Research focus areas

Topics as digitalization, globalization and financial markets are pivotal themes in international business law research. Also multidisciplinary aspects are important and legal research work is connected to, e.g., economics, technology and politics.

Focus areas of the Faculty of Law research:

  1. Law across boundaries and globalising law
  2. National legal system and its Nordic characteristics and European connections
  3. Law, digitalisation and technology
  4. Law and sustainability
  5. Law, security, welfare and privacy
  6. Legal basis and regulation of markets and business

On this page, you can familiarize yourself with some of our top research projects. 
The struc­ture of co­oper­at­ive own­er­ship and con­trol

Professor Ville Pönkä’s international research project concerns cooperative law in the modern business environment. The purpose of the project is to analyse the ownership and control structures of cooperatives by comparing them to corporate structures. The research centers upon the question of whether cooperative governance promotes efficiency and the ideal of democratic member control – and moreover, are efficiency and democratic member control compatible objectives.

The research is conducted in Finland (University of Helsinki) and in the United States, and in autumn 2018 Professor Pönkä conducted research on the topic at the Fordham University School of Law. 
In­ter­na­tional com­mer­cial trans­ac­tions and sustainable de­vel­op­ment

Professor of Civil- and Commercial Law, Ellen Eftestøl has a strong interest in international commercial transactions and sustainable development. She is the founder and leader of the InterTran Research Group, an interdisciplinary research group for sustainable law and business. The group’s central idea is to contribute to sustainable development while maintaining a strong focus on a sustainable circular economy. Particular attention is paid to the role of transport in sustainable development, but also other aspects of sustainable business are of interest. 

Professor Eftestøl is interested in interdisciplinary research and is a deputy member of the Steering group for Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, HELSUS. Eftestøl holds a Swedish-speaking chair. She takes particular interest in Nordic legal collaboration and is the founder and leader of Forum för civil- och handelsrätt, a platform for discussion on civil- and commercial law in Swedish. She is furthermore adjunct Professor at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo, where she also is a deputy member of the board.