Oikeusvaltiopäivä 26.10.2023

Oikeusvaltiokeskus ja Leo Mechelin säätiö järjestävät vuosittaisen Leo Mechelin -juhlaluennon osana Oikeusvaltiopäivän ohjelmaa. Leo Mechelin -juhlaluennoitsijaksi nimetään erityisen ansioitunut oikeusvaltion puolestapuhuja. Oikeusvaltiokeskuksen johtoryhmä ja Leo Mechelin säätiö nimeävät yhdessä tunnustuksen saajan, jolle luovutetaan Leo Mechelin -juhlamitali.

Toiseksi Leo Mechelin -juhlaluennoitsijaksi on nimetty kansainvälisesti erittäin arvostettu taloustieteilijä ja politiikan tutkija, Chicagon yliopiston professori James A. Robinson. Robinson tunnetaan hyvin kattavasta yhteiskunnallisesta tutkimuksestaan ja laajoista julkaisuistaan, jotka käsittelevät kansakuntien välisiä taloudellisia ja poliittisia eroja.

Hänen yhdessä Daron Acemoglun kanssa kirjoittamansa teokset Miksi maat kaatuvat (suom. Terra Cognita 2013) ja Kapea käytävä (suom. Terra Cognita 2020) käsittelevät instituutioiden, poliittisen vallan ja taloudellisen eriarvoisuuden välistä suhdetta väittäen, että osallistavat poliittiset ja taloudelliset instituutiot ovat hyvinvoinnin ja oikeusvaltion perusedellytyksiä. Robinson tunnetaan hyvän hallinnon, demokratian ja osallistavien instituutioiden väsymättömänä puolustajana.

Ennen nimitystään Chicagon yliopistoon Robinson on tehnyt merkittävän uran mm. Harvardin sekä Kalifornian (Berkeley) yliopistoissa.

Elisa Samuel Boerekamp, is a High Court Judge and General Director of the Centre for Judicial and Legal Training of Mozambique (Centro de Formação Jurídica e Judiciária). Boerekamp is a powerful advocate for equal rights and opportunities for women judges in Mozambique and beyond.

Elina Pirjatanniemi is Professor of Constitutional and International Law (leave of absence 1.9.2023-31.7.2025), and the Director of the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. She also has the title of docent in criminal law at the University of Turku, Finland.  Currently she is working as Professor of Law, specialization Criminal Law ar Åbo Akademi.  Pirjatanniemi is an expert on human rights, and on the relationship between national and international law. Her current research interests include the interplay between international human rights and national law, as well as the relationship between human rights and environmental protection. During the recent years, she has also done research on asylum law. Pirjatanniemi has good international networks, and she serves at present as the First Vice-President of the Global Campus of Human Rights, which is a global network of universities with a mission to advance human rights and democracy through international cooperation. In addition to her engagement in research and education, Pirjatanniemi is an active social debater and columnist for whom societal interaction is a central part of a researcher's everyday life.

Jaakko Husa is professor in Law and Globlisation. He is a leading figure in comparative legal studies, legal globalisation, comparative constitutional studies, and legal linguistics. Research is mostly concentrated on theoretical and methodological issues but also on substantive themes like the rule of law and global constitutionalism. He is a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and a Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.  

Professor Patricia Justino is a development economist who works at the interface between Development Economics and Political Science. She is a leading expert on political violence and development, and the co-founder and co-director of the Households in Conflict Network. She is currently Deputy Director at UNU-WIDER and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK (on leave).

Jens Hillebrand Pohl is a multidisciplinary legal scholar and political scientist with over 14 years of experience in academia and practice. He is an adjunct professor at Maastricht University and the United Nations University, where he teaches and researches the intersection of law and geoeconomics, legal geography, the (geo)politicization of the legal order, and the (mis)use of the legal system as an instrument of geostrategic power. He is also a doctoral research scientist at Tampere University, where he analyzes lawfare and geo-legal power from a political science perspective.