Faculty of Law: submitting the doctoral thesis

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This page provides detailed instructions to the students of the Faculty of Law on how to submit a doctoral dissertation for preliminary examination. Remember to first read the general instructions on the planning of the timetable and the preliminary examination aimed at all doctoral students at the University.

Should you have any questions on how to launch the preliminary examination process, you can always contact the doctoral student services of your home faculty.

Before launching the preliminary examination process
Submitting a dissertation for preliminary examination
What happens next?

Before launching the preliminary examination process

  • Contact your supervisor well in advance before submitting the dissertation for preliminary examination. This will make finding willing preliminary examiners easier. The supervisor and the responsible teacher will propose individuals to be appointed as preliminary examiners to the Faculty, and the presenting official will present the proposals at the Faculty Council meeting. The Faculty Council will appoint the preliminary examiners if they have given their consent and meet the set criteria.
  • Check the Faculty Council meeting times well in advance (you must submit the dissertation no later than eight weekdays before the meeting; mid-week public holidays may affect the schedule), so that you will know what to do and when, and your discipline will have enough time to find the preliminary examiners. The autumn 2026 meetings are 25.08.2026, 29.09.2026, 27.10.2026, 24.11.2026 and 15.12.2026. The spring 2027 meetings are 26.1.2027, 23.2.2027, 23.3.2027, 20.4.2027, 25.5.2027 and 15.6.2027.
  • All the studies included in the doctoral degree must be completed and entered into the Student Register Sisu before preliminary examiners can be proposed. Exceptions to this rule can only be made for particularly weighty reasons.
  • The doctoral student must register as an attending student at the University for the duration of the entire examination process.
  • A description of the examination process in its entirety and provisions related to it are available on the Faculty website.

Submitting a dissertation for preliminary examination

Always take these into account:

  • The dissertation manuscript submitted for preliminary examination must be written in the same language as the final version of the dissertation.
  • When submitting the dissertation for preliminary examination, the doctoral candidate must also provide an English abstract of the dissertation (of approximately one page in length). The abstract must include the topic of the research, the methodology used and the most significant results. The information must be presented verbally (no formulae, special symbols or figures). The preliminary examiners will also check the factual content of the abstract.

To submit your manuscript, follow these instructions:

  • Check the Faculty Council meeting dates in good time (the deadline is at least 12 days before the meeting) to ensure that there is sufficient time to check the prerequisites for starting the pre-examination and to do the necessary administrative preparation work. Your academic responsible person should submit their proposals for actors by the same deadline.
  • Send your personal information and information related to your dissertation manuscript to the Faculty’s Doctoral Student Services using the attached electronic form.
  • Check the Faculty Council meeting dates in good time (the deadline is at least 12 days before the meeting) to ensure that there is sufficient time to review the prerequisites for starting the pre-inspection and to do the necessary administrative preparation work. Your responsible person should submit their proposals for actors by the same deadline.Send the dissertation manuscript to the Faculty’s Doctoral Services (oik-jatkokoulutus@helsinki.fi) as an electronic copy no later than twelve days before the Faculty Council meeting during which the preliminary examiners are to be appointed. Faculty Council meeting times are 20.1.2026, 24.2.2026, 31.3.2026, 21.4.2026 and 2.6.2026. It is recommended that the electronic copy is in PDF format. You should send the file through the Funet FileSender. The service can be accessed with your University ID.

What happens next?

The dissertation manuscript will be delivered to the preliminary examiners by the Faculty Doctoral Student Services once the Faculty Council has appointed the preliminary examiners. The preliminary examiners will have two months to submit their statements, counted from the day they have received the dissertation manuscript.

Once both statements have arrived, the Doctoral Student Services will send them to you. You can lodge an objection about the preliminary examination statements before the Faculty Council meeting during which permission to defend the dissertation in a public examination is granted.