Åland Islands

• The Act on the Autonomy of Åland, which gives the islands their own lawmaking powers
• Finnish law, in all matters not given to Åland
• Laws passed by the Åland parliament (Lagting) in its own fields

• The District Court of Åland, the court of first instance
• The Turku Court of Appeal, on the Finnish mainland
• The Supreme Court of Finland

The Finnish route: a law degree (Master of Laws), then membership of the Finnish Bar Association or work as a judge.

• The islands are demilitarised and neutral, under an international settlement of 1921.
• Only people with 'regional citizenship' (hembygdsrätt) can vote in Åland elections or buy land, to protect the Swedish-speaking culture.
• Swedish, not Finnish, is the official language of the local administration and courts.

Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Estonia

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Åland Islands as: Civil law. It names the systems in order of importance. This territory is shown with the classification of the state it belongs to.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria.

• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.