Jaakko is Full Professor in Law and Globalisation since April 2018. PhD (Public Law) in 1995. Before Helsinki he held several full professorial chairs: Comparative Public Law (Uni Vaasa 98-03), Constitutional Law & Jurisprudence (Uni Eastern Finland 04-10), Legal Culture & Legal Linguistics (Uni Lapland 11-14), and Comparative Law and Constitutional Law (Uni Lapland 14-18). In 2006-07 he held the position of Senior Research Fellow with the Academy of Finland.

 

Jaakko is an Invited Fellow with Maastricht European Private Law Institute, Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, and Invited Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He holds the position of Docent at the universities of Eastern Finland, Lapland, and Vaasa.

 

He has held visiting positions in Maastricht University, Riga Graduate School of Law (Latvia), Hong Kong University, and Edinburgh University (MacCormick Fellow). Specialist areas include theory of comparative law, comparative constitutional studies, legal globalisation, legal cultures, legal history, and Nordic law. Jaakko is a firm supporter of international legal scholarship, underlining the importance of studying law in context and in a multidisciplinary manner. 

 

His recent research concerns interdisciplinary methodology, legal globalisation, and comparative legal history. He is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences on - broadly understood - comparative law. 

 

Beyond research he lectures, leads seminars, holds tutorials, and supervises PhD researchers.

 

Jaakko is Vice Dean (Research) of the Law Faculty, Chair of Faculty's Research Committee, Deputy Director of Global Governance Law Masters Programme among other administrative positions. He is also a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Helsinki University Press.