Riikka Koulu

Description of research and teaching

Since february 2023, I’m associate professor (Social and Legal Implications of AI) at the faculties of Social Sciences and Law at the University of Helsinki. I’m also the director of University of Helsinki Legal Tech Lab (www.legaltechlab.fi), an interdisciplinary research hub specialised in law, technology, and society and a member organisation of Network of Centers (Noc). Affiliated researcher of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in Berlin, Germany. In 2025, I’m also an academic visitor at Oxford University.  

I’m a socio-legal scholar of law, technology, and society. In my doctoral dissertation (2016) I combined procedural law and legal theory to discuss socio-technical change of conflict management. Nowadays, I combine doctrinal and theoretical legal analysis with empirical research, mostly from public law perspective. I’m fascinated by the interconnections between law, technology, and society, trying to understand law’s role in shaping and being shaped by our digitalised societies. My recent work includes various forms and power dynamics of digital public administration, AI policy and regulation alongside European technology regulation, the impact of digital technologies on legal decision-making inside and outside the courts, among other things. I’m currently working on human oversight and interface design.  

I welcome inquiries from aspiring doctoral researchers interested in similar topics.