{"id":66,"date":"2020-12-01T21:30:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T19:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emiliakorkea-aho.eu\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2025-09-08T12:31:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T10:31:44","slug":"research-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.emiliakorkea-aho.eu\/index.php\/research-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Research projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

BUREAUCRATIC revolving door \u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n

The research project \u201cExpertise In and Out of Government: The Bureaucratic Revolving Door and Its Regulation in EU Member States\u201d (REVOLVE) looks at the revolving door phenomenon and ways to regulate it in select Member States: Finland, France and Slovenia as well as at the EU level. The project is funded by the Research Council of Finland until 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The project is discussed here<\/a> in Finnish and here<\/a> in English (the latter together with Lola Avril).<\/p>\r\n

For project publications, see:\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Avril, L. and Korkea-aho, E. (2024). Administration As Usual? Revolving Doors and the Quiet Regulation of Political Ethics. Journal of European Public Policy.(Open access).<\/p>\r\n

LOBBYING IN FINNISH MUNICIPAL POLITICS<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n

The Kone Foundation research project LoSKa (2023-2027)<\/a> will look into political influencing and lobbying in Finnish municipalities.<\/p>\r\n

The project is discussed here<\/a> and here<\/a> in Finnish.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

COMPLETED RESEARCH PROJECTS<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

THIRD COUNTRY LOBBYING<\/h5>\r\n

The first Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher project (2013\u20132016) looked at how non-EU countries seek to influence the EU when it regulates the law and policy of chemicals. The key findings of the project can be found in a research article\u00a0\u201c\u2018Mr. Smith Goes to Brussels\u2019:\u00a0Third Country Lobbying and the Making of EU Law and Policy<\/a>\u201c, published in 2016 in the\u00a0Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n

THE LOBBYIST<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n

In my subsequent Academy of Finland Research Fellow project (2016\u20132021), I focused on the intersections between democracy, constitutionalism and lobbying, and in particular how lobbying regulations articulate and define a lobbyist. The findings are published as three research articles \u201cLegal Lobbying: The Evolving (But Hidden) Role of Lawyers and Law Firms in the EU Public Affairs Market<\/a>\u201d in\u00a0German Law Journal<\/em> (2021), \u00a0“Are Lawyer Lobbyists Answerable to \u2018a Higher Authority\u2019? Bar Association Rules as Lobbying Regulation in the EU and the US<\/a>” in Interest Groups & Advocacy <\/em>(2022), \u00a0\u201cA right to lobby? Comparing constitutional discourses in the EU and the US\u201d in the Columbia Journal of European Law <\/em>(Winter 2021-2022), and in a book chapter \u201cRock \u2019n\u2019 Roll Stars or Guitar Technicians? Legal Advisors in NGO Political Advocacy Work\u201d (CUP, 2022).<\/p>\r\n

In addition to my academic work on the regulation of lobbying I have served in various expert positions relating to lobbying and its regulation.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

I was lead investigator in a project on lobbying regulation funded by the Finnish Prime Minister\u2019s Office. The report, published in 2018, examined the lobbying registers of the EU, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Austria, and the US from three different \u2013 and yet interrelated \u2013 perspectives: 1) how they comply with international recommendations, 2) the role of public authorities, and 3) their advantages and disadvantages.\u00a0The report, co-authored with Paul Tiensuu and available in Finnish, can be accessed\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

Between 2020-2021 I was an expert member in the Ministry of Justice’ s working group that prepared the Finnish Transparency Register Law. \u00a0As of June 2023, I have served as Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board for the Finnish Transparency Register.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

EU GOVERNANCE AND SOFT LAW<\/strong><\/h5>\r\n

My doctoral thesis dealt with how the role of courts has been transformed by new governance instruments. The thesis was then reworked into a monograph entitled\u00a0Adjudicating New Governance<\/em>:\u00a0Deliberative democracy in the European Union<\/em><\/a>, published by Routledge in 2015. I also published a series of articles (European Law Journal<\/em>,\u00a0European Law Review<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Transnational Environmental Law<\/em>) discussing the promises and pitfalls of so-called framework legislation, in particular framework directives in the EU.<\/p>\r\n

My more recent soft law research has focused on EU soft law at the national level. I led the EU Commission funded Jean Monnet European Network on Soft Law Research (SoLaR, 2016\u20132019). This three-year project, involving contributions from more than 30 researchers from seven EU Member States, looked at the reception and impact of EU soft law in the Member States. A collection, co-edited together with Mariolina Eliantonio and Oana Stefan and entitled\u00a0EU Soft Law in the Member States: Theoretical Findings and Empirical Evidence<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0was published by Hart Publishing in 2021.<\/p>\r\n

Together with Mariolina Eliantonio and Steven Vaughan, I co-edited a Special Issue entitled\u00a0\u201cIs Soft Law Pandemic Proof?\u201d focusing on how Member States use soft law to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue was published in the\u00a0European Journal of Risk Regulation<\/em>\u00a0in 2021. My article, co-authored together with Martin Scheinin, analyses how soft law regulation was used in Finland during the first wave of the pandemic.<\/p>\r\n

Together with Mariolina Eliantonio and Ulrika M\u00f6rth, I have co-edited \u00a0Research Handbook on Soft Law (Edward Elgar, 2023).<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS BUREAUCRATIC revolving door \u00a0 The research project \u201cExpertise In and Out of Government: The Bureaucratic Revolving Door and Its Regulation in EU Member States\u201d (REVOLVE) looks at the revolving door phenomenon and ways to regulate it in select Member States: Finland, France and Slovenia as well as at the EU level. The … <\/p>\n

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