---
title: "The Finnish constitution | Heikki Vestman | Negotiator 312"
titleOriginal: "Suomen Perustuslaki | Heikki Vestman | Neuvottelija 312"
episodeNumber: "312"
guest: "Heikki Vestman"
datePublished: 2025-03-05
duration: "01:03:31"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["free_speech_society","leadership_governance"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The guest chairs the committee the episode describes, so it is an insider's account of an institution he leads rather than an outside assessment of it, which the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/568-suomen-perustuslaki-vestman-neuvottelija-312"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep312-suomen-perustuslaki-heikki-vestman/
---
# The Finnish constitution | Heikki Vestman | Negotiator 312

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=0s) The guest: Heikki Vestman, chair of the Constitutional Law Committee
- [01:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=77s) Popular sovereignty and parliament's double role
- [03:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=197s) The model's roots in the Diet's law committee
- [05:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=304s) Finland is the only Nordic country with ex ante review
- [05:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=322s) What the constitution actually provides
- [06:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=377s) The committee's position binds the whole parliament
- [07:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=435s) Who watches the watchers
- [08:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=493s) Sources of law and experts as the committee's method
- [09:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=566s) The politicisation of the US Supreme Court
- [11:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=718s) In Germany and Italy judges are appointed politically
- [12:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=768s) Finland's strength is democratic legitimacy
- [13:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=815s) The border security act and countering hybrid influence
- [14:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=877s) Can human rights obligations be departed from at all
- [15:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=907s) The exception act as a peculiarity of Finland's constitutional order
- [16:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1013s) The five-sixths procedure and human rights
- [18:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1084s) The claim that experts unanimously objected does not hold
- [19:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1154s) There is often more than one available interpretation
- [20:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1219s) Of the 2024 opinions, 60 were unanimous
- [20:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1254s) Expert statements become public after the proceedings
- [23:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1430s) Sometimes the committee has to vote
- [24:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1485s) The nominee register and the famous 90 per cent controversy
- [26:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1575s) The legislator's discretion is the heart of the question
- [27:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1673s) The collateral agent act as an example of a fundamental-rights link
- [29:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1757s) Who is actually heard in the committee
- [31:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1868s) Did the fundamental rights reform create endless new rights
- [31:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1919s) The reform was made in the depths of the recession
- [33:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=1990s) The state of public finances is taken into account
- [34:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2059s) Necessary subsistence and free basic education
- [35:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2117s) Where the constitutional limit on taxation runs
- [36:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2202s) Fundamental rights are not unlimited
- [37:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2248s) Free speech and the prosecutor general's special powers
- [38:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2317s) The chilling effect of official action on free speech
- [39:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2396s) The committee assesses in advance, not individual cases
- [40:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2415s) Universal applicability against freedom of contract
- [41:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2487s) Local bargaining extended to all companies
- [41:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2516s) Corporatism outside parliamentarism
- [43:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2607s) Old opinion practice works as precedent
- [45:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2704s) The leave-to-appeal system as an example of interpretation changing
- [45:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2751s) Can the committee be captured politically
- [46:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2814s) The National Coalition has held the chair for over 80 years
- [48:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2897s) Ministerial responsibility and an MP's immunity from prosecution
- [49:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=2991s) In law there is never only one answer
- [50:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3032s) Leaving the euro, and lex monetae
- [50:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3059s) The EU recovery package and Finland's negotiated outcome
- [51:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3092s) Support packages for Ukraine and the mines in them
- [52:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3125s) A significant transfer of powers required a qualified majority
- [52:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3177s) Vestman voted against the debt package
- [54:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3298s) The primacy of EU law is not absolute
- [55:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3346s) The German precedent and Finland's data protection exception
- [56:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3378s) The intelligence act and the direction of the Digital Services Act
- [56:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3416s) The ban on prior censorship is the core of free speech
- [57:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3441s) Political debate is being judicialised at an accelerating pace
- [57:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3478s) The inflation of human rights blurs the real boundaries
- [59:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3588s) Human rights belong to the majority too
- [1:00:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3630s) The trans act as an example of concepts being confused
- [1:01:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3691s) Only forced sterilisation was required by human rights
- [1:02:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w&t=3747s) Inner Circle: arbitration

## Summary

Heikki Vestman, chair of the Constitutional Law Committee, explains why in Finland the interpretation of the constitution is decided by an elected committee rather than a court. The episode covers the committee's method — its sources of law, expert hearings and the pursuit of unanimity that produced 60 unanimous opinions out of 64 in 2024 — and why Finland is the only Nordic country with ex ante review that binds parliament. The border security act was passed as an exception act, a peculiarity of the Finnish constitutional order inherited from the years of Russian oppression. Also the structure of economic and social fundamental rights, the constitutional ceiling on taxation, universal applicability of collective agreements against freedom of contract, and the limits of EU law primacy.

## Why a committee and not a court

Finland is the only Nordic country whose constitutional review happens before a law passes
and binds parliament. Vestman's defence of that is not that it produces better law but
that it carries democratic legitimacy a court cannot, and he points to the politicisation
of appointments elsewhere as the alternative's cost.

## The measurable answer to the politicisation charge

Sixty of the committee's sixty-four opinions in 2024 were unanimous. That is the episode's
one checkable response to the claim that the body votes along party lines — and it is the
guest's own institution reporting on itself, which is worth remembering.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Suomen Perustuslaki | Heikki Vestman | Neuvottelija 312](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDln9Ni1o8w).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/568-suomen-perustuslaki-vestman-neuvottelija-312).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep312-suomen-perustuslaki-heikki-vestman/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep312-suomen-perustuslaki-heikki-vestman/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — The Finnish constitution | Heikki Vestman | Negotiator 312, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep312-suomen-perustuslaki-heikki-vestman/, 2025-03-05. For quotes include episode 312 and timestamp.