Some experts in constitutional law have voiced concern about Finnish President Sauli Niinistö's decision to allow his newly-appointed Chancellor of Justice Tuomas Pöysti to postpone starting at his post until the beginning of next year, reports the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The previous Chancellor Jaakko Jonkka retired already in April.
Tuomas Ojanen, Helsinki University professor of constitutional law, told the paper that in his opinion, doing without an active Chancellor of Justice for eight months is an untenable prospect. Janne Salminen from the University of Turku's public law department and Mikael Hidén, emeritus professor of constitutional law, share Ojanen's sentiments.
"When a Justice Chancellor leaves office, the principle is that his or her successor would continue immediately, without a break. Monitoring the legality of the government's actions is a very important task, so a situation in which a temporary fix has been imposed for over a half year is in no way ideal," Hidén told the paper.
Chief legal overseer of the land
The Chancellor of Justice and the Parliamentary Ombudsman are the two highest legal guardians in Finland. The Chancellor of Justice is responsible for overseeing the lawfulness of the government, ministries, and president. The previous Chancellor, Jaakko Jonkka, for example, made headlines in recent years for his criticism of hastily-prepared government bills and has responded to calls to investigate suspicions of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä's conflict of interest.
As Yle News reported earlier this week, the new appointee was expected to take up his role in May, but last week Helsingin Sanomat reporting suggested that the appointment had been delayed after President Sauli Niinistö objected to a previous candidate.
Professor of Administrative Law Olli Mäenpää told Yle at the time that Pöysti could have a conflict of interest in adjudicating cases concerning the upcoming health and social care reform, as he has been instrumental in pushing the plans for consolidation forward.
Pöysti himself said that he'd considered the possibility of a conflict of interest and expected all of the legislation associated with the reform to be in force by the time he takes office. He told Yle earlier this week that the reason he would be unavailable to begin in his new post in May was because he had to finish up his current work directing the reform.