part vi • european legal integration • pia letto-vanamo ranking of publication channels and regular research assessments by foreign experts. More and more often, the question about the best (legal) scholars needs to be answered. Academic assessments, however, are not only a Finnish phenomenon. Evaluation culture and assessment criteria are discussed in many other countries, too. Recently I read a report from the German Council of Science and Humanities that critically analyses legal research at German universities.9 Themain conclusion is that German legal scholarship is too provincial, too narrow, and lacks creativity. Since reading the report, I have been asking myself whether legal scholarship can be anything other than provincial, narrow, and lacking in creativity; whether it should be something more. My answer is yes, especially today. Even so-called dogmatic, doctrinal legal academic work is challenged by European impacts – and by other developments, such as the privatization and globalization of legal regulation and legal practices. This means that high-quality legal research is needed alongside classic legal dogmatics with innovative legal systematization.10 And in my opinion it is impossible to be truly effective and reliable when systematizing work if knowledge of the basic principles and fundamental policies of the legal field concerned is neglected. Here we are approaching the role of legal history and the need for dialogue between legal history and doctrinal legal research. Howdowe know its relevance, how are we to assess regulatory or institutional impacts which we would like to adapt to our own system if we know nothing of the societal and historical backgrounds of the institution concerned? There are alarming examples of this from Finland. As in many other European countries, there has always been an interest in foreign ideas and institutions; an openness to using foreign models in legal research and legal practice. However, the basics of new institutions are not always sufficiently analysed. For example, more disputes are today solved with 9 Wissenschaftsrat, Perspektiven der Rechtswissenschaft in Deutschland (Hamburg: Wissenschaftsrat, 2012). 10 An interesting proposal by JanM. Smits, ‘What is Legal Doctrine? On the Aims and Methods of Legal–Dogmatic Research’, Maastricht European Private Law Institute, working paper 2015/06. 284
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=