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Suvi works as the Research Coordinator of the University of Helsinki Legal Tech Lab and is the PI of Academy of Finland (2019-23) research project 'Is this Public or Private? A Study on the Philosophical Foundations of European Privacy Regulation' (POP). As Research Coordinator she serves as interface between several law and technology related research projects within the Faculty of Law and facilitates their interdisciplinary connections with other faculties and universities. Suvi was granted Title of Docent (Adjunct Professorship) in European Law by the University of Helsinki in 2018.

Research interests

As Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher 2016-19 (Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki), Suvi's research fell within the field of European Law. The postdoctoral research project was nicknamed '(L)awful protectionism', focused on (non-food) industrial products and studied potential concrete legal means - such as country-of-origin (COO) indications, consumer information, standardisation - for promoting overall welfare in Europe in a global age. In more theoretical terms, (re-)connecting non-cosmopolitan transnational (generative) solidarity to the relationship between the European market and the Market citizen (consumer). Preliminary results can be found in eg 'Collective valuation of common good through consumption: What is (un)lawful in mandatory country-of-origin labelling of non-food products?' in do Amaral Junior, A., de Almeida, L. & Klein Vieira, L. (eds.), Sustainable Consumption: The Right to a Healthy Environment (Springer, 2020) p. 207-227.

Suvi's prior, and also ongoing, research interests include judicial adjudication in general, in particular the preliminary reference procedure, and especially the legal reasoning of the Court of Justice. Her approach is, methodologically, a combination of legal doctrinal studies, socio-legal studies and legal empirical (qualitative and quantitative) research - paired with relevant legal theory. Results of this research are collected in her monograph European Court of Justice Legal Reasoning in Context (Groningen: Europa Law Publishing, 2013) and chapter 'Constitutional Pluralism and Judicial Adjudication: On Legal Reasoning, Minimalism and Silence by the Court of Justice', in Davies, G. & Avbelj, M. (eds.) Research Handbook on Legal Pluralism and EU law (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2018) p. 309-322.

Suvi Sankari is a member of the research project European Bonds: The Moral Economy of Debt, one founder-member of the Nordic Network of Legal Empirical Scholars ('No-Les-Law', funded by NOS-HS), and collaborates with InterTran Research Group for Sustainable Law and Business and the FiDiPro project on the External Dimension of European Private Law (EDEPL).

Previously Suvi has worked in the European Bonds: The Moral Economy of Debt project, the Many Constitutions of Europe project and in the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in 'The Foundations of European Law and Polity' Research 2008-2013 (2011-13).

Teaching

Having taught at the University of Helsinki since 2004, Suvi has gained broad experience of independently planning courses and teaching them either alone or together with colleagues. Suvi enjoys collaborative teaching (and learning), especially because the presence of two (or more) teachers in class engages the students more fully and produces better learning outcomes (according to student feedback).

Suvi has mainly taught EU law, mainly Master's students, and mainly in English. Substance has varied: from two EU Law Master’s thesis projects to methodology seminars; from lecture-based introductory EU Law course to practical skills courses of how EU law works in Finland; from discussion and writing seminars to intensive problem-based small-group introductory course to EU Law; and smaller teaching units like 90-minute sessions on (re)introduction to EU Law. Methods of learning assessment have varied from grading class participation to learning diaries to classic essay exams to automated exam aquarium exams and from multiple choice to research essays, and combinations of these.