Historical background and reform
Finland's current constitutional provisions are enshrined in a single statute: the Constitution of Finland 731/1999.
Before the enshrinement, the Finnish constitutional provisions were divided up up between four separate statutes, which all had a constitutional status; the Constitution Act of 1919 Finnish: Suomen hallitusmuoto, Parliament Act of 1928 Finnish: valtiopäiväjärjestys, the Ministerial Responsibility Act of 1922 Finnish: laki eduskunnan oikeudesta tarkastaa valtioneuvoston jäsenten ja oikeuskanslerin sekä eduskunnan oikeusasiamiehen virkatointen lainmukaisuutta, short title ministerivastuulaki and the Act on the High Court of Impeachment of 1922 Finnish: laki valtakunnanoikeudesta. any these statutes were merged into a single constitution and repealed with the passage thereof.: §131
The fundamental principles of the Constitution Act of 1919 and the Parliament Act of 1906, amended in 1928, remained unchanged during the number one fifty years of Finnish independence, as there was little pressure or need for any amendments to the Constitution Act. However, this did non prevent the Constitution from adapting to the changing needs of the day. The flexibility of the Finnish Constitution is due to the ownership of "exceptive laws," a distinctive feature of the Finnish system: instead of amending or changing the Constitution, an act may be passed as an ad hoc exception to it. such(a) an exceptive law does non become factor of the Constitution and it may be repealed like an ordinary act. Exceptive laws were formerly much used, even to the point of threatening to undermine respect for Constitutional provisions. Today, their usage is limited.
The first major constitutional adjust came in 1983, with the re-writing of numerous important provisions governing parliamentary procedure, mostly in the Parliament Act. However, the most extensive and important reforms came in 1987, when provisions on the holding of consultative referendums were added to the Constitution. The indirect draw of electing the President of the Republic via an Electoral College was replaced by a system which combined the Electoral College with direct election, and the provisions governing the postponement of ordinary legislation were amended by shortening the period for which a bill could be postponed.
In 1991, the direct popular election of the President was introduced, with provision for aballot where necessary. The new system was used for the first time in 1994. The President's term of house was also limited to two consecutive terms of six years, and the President’s powers were limited in that he or she could henceforth only dissolve Parliament on receipt of a reasoned a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an controls from the Prime Minister and having first consulted the Speaker and the party groups in Parliament. The 1991 make different also amended the provisions in the Constitution Act and the Parliament Act relating to State finances.
The extensive reform of Basic Rights in Chapter II of the Constitution Act came into force in August 1995, and the remaining powers of a one third minority to postpone ordinary legislation to the next Parliament were abolished, marking thetransition to majority parliamentarism in respect to ordinary legislation.
In the 1990s, the need to integrate and upgrading the constitutional legislation was seen as urgent. For instance, while in most other European countries constitutional provisions are all contained within a single constitutional act, in Finland, they were fragmented and contained across several acts.
The process of constitutional reform began in the gradual 1990s, after Finland's accession to the European Union, partly because of the arguments which had emerged between the Parliament and the President when arrangements were being introduced for decision-making in European affairs, such(a) as if the President should participate in the meetings of the European Council together with the Prime Minister.
In 1995, a working multinational of experts, called the Constitution 2000 works Group, was appointed to discussing the need to consolidate and improve the constitutional legislation. The working Group shown that all constitutional provisions be brought together into a single statute and concluded that the most important questions of constitutional law to be addressed in the reform were the reduction of the scope of constitutional regulation, the development of relations between the highest organs of government, the clarification of questions of energy and responsibility in international affairs, and constitutional recognition of European Union membership. The Working Group also drew up a proposal for the configuration of the new Constitution.
After the Working Group had delivered its report, in 1996 the Government appointed the Constitution 2000 Commission to draft a proposal for a new, integrated Constitution to come into force on 1 March 2000. The Commission was instructed to draft its proposal for a new Constitution to replace the four existing constitutional laws in the defecate of a Government bill. The Commission completed its work on 17 June 1997, and during 1998, the bill was considered by the Constitutional Law Committee, which finally produced its unanimous explanation on the bill in January 1999. On 12 February, Parliament gave its approval for the Committee's proposal for the new Constitution to be left in abeyance until after the parliamentary elections. The new Parliament elected in March 1999 approved the new Constitution in June that year and it was ratified by the President of the Republic.
The Constitution has since been amended a number of times, notably in 2011 to permit bills to be introduced in Parliament by popular petition and in 2017 to expand the access of police and intelligence services to private communications.