Law of Finland

Finnish law is a civil law system consisting mainly of statutes enacted by the Parliament of Finland, rooted in Swedish law and the wider Scandinavian and German legal traditions that trace back to Roman law; the oldest instruction still applied dates to 1530, and parts of the Swedish Civil Code of 1734 remain formally in force. During the period of Russian rule from 1809 to 1917 Finland underwent substantial codification, including a criminal code issued under Tsar Alexander III in 1889, and after independence its Constitution was promulgated in 1919 and comprehensively rewritten in 2000. The statutory hierarchy places the Constitution at the top, setting out basic rights and legislative procedure, below which sit Acts of Parliament as primary legislation, typically proposed by the government, and decrees issued by the President, Government or ministries when a statute authorizes them. As a member of the European Union, Finland implements EU law through national legislation and recognizes the Court of Justice of the European Union as the final authority on EU matters, and unlike France or Germany it has no single unified civil code.