Images from left to right: Hanne Salonen / Finnish Parliament, Hannu Häkkinen / The Finnish Heritage Agency, Lauri Putkonen / Helsinki City Museum

What is LAWPOL?

LAWPOL is a new research infrastructure that brings together political and legal documents related to public decision-making in one place and offers digital tools for their analysis. 

The research infrastructure includes the Lakitutka and Lagradarn services, which focus on legislative drafting, as well as the Politiikkapöytä service, which utilizes data from FINPARL. The infrastructure is developed by the Faculty of Law and the Centre for Parliamentary Studies at the University of Turku, together with the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University—each contributing their own area of expertise.

The LAWPOL research infrastructure contains legal materials that are central to the legislative process. These include documents produced by legislative drafters, stakeholders, and experts, as well as government proposals and parliamentary debates related to legislative projects.

LAWPOL also includes other political materials. For example, Politiikkapöytä features government and party programmes, as well as parliamentary debates not tied to any specific legislative initiative. These materials enable the examination of political dynamics, ideologies, interests, and conflicts in decision-making. Politiikkapöytä also offers various digital tools that allow users to explore large datasets without requiring in-depth knowledge of computational methods.

Previously scattered across multiple locations, these materials have now been consolidated into the LAWPOL research infrastructure, making them easily accessible to all. Combined with digital tools, they promote interdisciplinary research and enhance the transparency and openness of political decision-making and legislation. Learn more about the LAWPOL research infrastructure and the project behind it here.