N. 6 – 2007 – CV

Heikki Eero Sakari Mattila

b. December 14, 1947

Titles: Doctor of Laws, Professor of Legal Linguistics (University of Lapland), Docent of Comparative Law (University of Helsinki).

Address: University of Lapland, Faculty of Law, PL 122, FI- 96101 Rovaniemi

Tel: +358-50-4670672

E-mail: heikki.mattila@ulapland.fi

Diplomas: Law studies in Helsinki (Master of Laws 1969, Licentiate of Laws 1971) and Paris (Diplômé de l’Institut de droit comparé 1975). Doctoral studies in Poland in the mid-1970s.

Thesis: “Les successions agricoles et la structure de la société. Une étude en droit comparé” (1979), concerning the basic problems of farm inheritance in Poland as a socialist country compared with market economy countries. Opponents: Andrzej Stelmachowski (Warsaw) and Aulis Aarnio (Helsinki).

Law practice: Lawyer of the Helsinki Child Welfare Office responsible for international family-law matters, especially with international maintenance recovery (1981-1982).

Lexicographical experience: Editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia Iuridica Fennica, 1990-1999. This encyclopaedia was published in 1994-1999 (7 volumes + indices volume). Co-author of a Finnish law abbreviations dictionary.

Positions of trust: Secretary-General of the IVR (International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy), 1983-1987. The Translator Examination Board of Finland: expert in Romance languages (1992-). Consultative State Committee for Language Matters, permanent member (2004-). Keynote speaker at the XVII World Congress (2005) of the International Federation of Translators (FIT).

Scientific acknowledgements and awards: Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 2004. “Finnish Legal Historian of the Year 2005” (elected by the Matthias Calonius Society).

Main research fields: Earlier: research on family law, law of inheritance and private international law. Nowadays: research on comparative law and comparative legal linguistics, i.e. studies concerning different legal languages, especially legal Latin and legal French. Also research on general questions of legal language, e. g. on legal abbreviations. Supervisor of doctoral theses in these fields.

Publications: Books (6), articles (ca. 115) and book reviews in Finnish, Swedish, French, English, German, Polish, Russian, and Italian on family law, private international law, comparative law, and legal linguistics. Editor of symposium papers.

In 2002, a general treatise on comparative legal linguistics (in Finnish, LXXIII + 739 pages) covering the foundations of this science, the functions, characteristics and terminology of legal language, legal Latin, legal German, legal French, legal English and, to a minor extent, Scandinavian and certain other languages, as well as problems of legal translation.

An updated English edition (somewhat shortened) of this book ("Comparative Legal Linguistics") appeared in September 2006. A French version (“Linguistique juridique comparée”) is in preparation, and will appear at the end of the present decade.

November 2007