The database DOMBASE contains English summaries of selected Finnish court decisions that include references to international human rights treaties or the Bill of Rights of the Finnish Constitution Act.

The material in DOMBASE is based on the annual reports on national case law submitted by the Institute for Human Rights as a national correspondent to the Council of Europe. Therefore, a good part of the cases in the database refer to the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, there are cases with references to human rights conventions of the United Nations, such as the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

DOMBASE is not exhaustive. It mainly contains cases which have been easily available, that is, have been originally included in other freely accessible databases or sources. Most cases in the database are from the year 1990 onwards, but some cases from 1974 to 1990 have also been included. Finland ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1990. Before 1990, references to international human rights treaties were rare in Finnish court decisions.

In the case summaries, we have chosen to concentrate on the argumentation concerning human rights provisions and their interpretation. A full scope of the argumentation in the principal matter of substance is thus not given in each case. Please note that each case refers to legislation in force at the time the decision was taken. Possible later amendments to that legislation are not reported in the case summaries. For example, as regards constitutional rights, the Bill of Rights in the Finnish Constitution Act was amended in 1995. In addition, in the new Constitution Act (1999) the numbering of the sections in the Bill of Rights was changed. Consequently, the references to sections in the new Constitution Act do not correspond to sections in the old Constitution Act (1919) or the amended Bill of Rights (1995).

For each case the database gives the original source, in which either the full text of the decision or a summary of it may be found in Finnish and/or Swedish. The main sources are the annual report of the court in question and the FINLEX databank, which is administered by the Finnish Ministry of Justice. FINLEX is available through Internet at http://www.finlex.fi. Other relevant Internet sources include the homepages of the Supreme Administrative Court (http://www.kho.fi), the Supreme Court (http://www.kko.fi), the Insurance Court (http://www.oikeus.fi/vakuutusoikeus) and the Labour Court (http://www.oikeus.fi/tyotuomioistuin). The website of the Ministry of Justice also contains selected summaries of case law from administrative courts and courts of appeal (http://www.oikeus.fi).

A search in DOMBASE can be made as a free text search, which covers all fields in the database, or with the help of keywords. The case summaries are in English only, whereas all keywords as well as references to courts, original sources and legislation have been given in three languages: English, Swedish and Finnish. For more information please take a look at the Search tips and the Index of keywords.

For more information on the database DOMBASE, please contact Raija Hanski

e-mail: raija.hanski@abo.fi telephone: 358-2-2154324

June 29, 2006 Institute for Human Rights