Environmental law development in Finland

Three periods of the environmental law development in Finland could be identified: the first is the Swedish governance; the next is the period of dependence upon Russian Empire with the beginning of self-government and discussions about the force and the status of local normative acts; and the last is a modern period characterized by internal political independence conditioned by joining the European Union and active participation in the world policy. In recent times, Finnish researchers are becoming more and more concerned about EU growing influence on domestic legislation of the country.