Finlex is a free, public online database of legal information. The database is owned by the Ministry of Justice, which uses it to support the authorities in fulfilling their obligation to provide information and make it public. Finlex is maintained by the Legal Register Centre. The data published in Finlex is produced by several parties, including ministries, authorities and courts of law.
The statutes that have entered into force most recently are published on the page for the Statute Book of Finland. Statutes are always published first in the Statute Book of Finland. The Finlex page for the Statute Book of Finland also contains older statutes. Read more about the Statute Book of Finland in the Act on the Statutes of Finland (188/2000).
You can find the original statutes as text and in PDF format on the Statute Book of Finland page. You can use the search features to find the statute you need. Read the search guide for more instructions.
Previously, a statue would have been published as a PDF and in text format on different pages. The text format was the original statue. Now, these can be found on the same page: at the top of the page in the reference section, there is a link to the statute published in PDF format in the Statute Book of Finland, and the text version is published on the same page below the reference data.
First, read the search guide. Finlex has a simple search and several advanced search functions. You can search for text published in Finnish or Swedish and for the following special characters: %, §, ) and (. The search features cannot retrieve information in PDF file attachments or similar PDF files. You can use the asterisk (*) in the middle or at the end of a search word to find words that start with the same letters. You can't use the asterisk at the beginning of a search word to truncate the word.
Finlex is a public service that anybody can use free of charge. There are no restrictions on use, on the right of access to information or on the utilisation of the data published in Finlex. All information published in Finlex is public.
Finlex data is also available in machine-readable format as linked open data. For example, the data published in Finlex can be used to create new value added services. Finlex open data is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence.
The data may not be used for purposes that breach or compromise the protection of personal data. The data may not be combined in a manner that violates a person's privacy.
The upgrade improved Finlex's search features, made the content easier to retrieve, improved the usability and accessibility of the online service, and expanded the open data on regulations. The publishing features used by the authorities, courts, etc. were also improved.
To give feedback or suggestions on how to develop Finlex, please email finlex-tuki@om.fi.