
Sanna Mustasaari
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Law School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
[email protected] | +358 50 476 6763
LL.D (title of Docent) Sanna Mustasaari is Associate Professor of family law at the civil law team and the Center of Law and Welfare, UEF Law School. She is a member of the leading group of the research community Borders, Mobilities and Cultural Encounters BOMOCULT | University of Eastern Finland. Her main research interests include family and inheritance law, transnational child welfare, intersections of religion and family law, human rights law, private international law, migration law, children’s rights, trans rights, relational legal theory, feminist legal theory, rights in context, and migration and transnationalism studies.
Research groups
Research and supervision
Associate Professor Mustasaari leads the informal research group Beyond Borders, Norms and Boxes (BBNB) and supervises the following PhD candidates: Rahma Hersi (How do Finnish Muslim Women Engage with Islamic Normativity in Their Professional Lives, UEF); Noora Kivioja (Studying the dynamics of transnational child welfare in Finland. The case of child returnees from conflict areas, University of Helsinki); Jarrah Kaisa Kollei (Who has the right to a good divorce? Rainbow people’s experiences of accessing rights, UEF); Kati Saurula (Coordination of services for children with neuropsychiatric symptoms and their families, UEF); and Fairuz Muthana (A multilayered theoretical anti-racist approach to honor based violence in Finland, University of Oulu).
Mustasaari’s recently completed research projects focus on transnational childhoods and children’s rights: Children Abroad: A Relational Analysis of Finnish Child Protection and Welfare in Transnational Contexts [CARELA], Research Council of Finland 2020-2024) adopted an interdisciplinary approach to study children’s rights to protection in various transnational settings. She was the PI of the NOS-HS exploratory workshop series Transnational Childhoods, Transnational Rights (https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/nos-hs-workshop-series-transnational-childhoods-transnational-rights-nordic-responses-to-global-challenges-in-the-field-of-child-protection/ ) and led a subproject in a Consortium that focuses on cross-border child protection (SUOJATIE, 2022-2024). Mustasaari’s PhD “Rethinking recognition: Transnational families and belonging in law” (2017) studied the diverse forms of the legality and recognition of family relationships in different normative systems.
”Children’s Rights Cross Borders”: https://youtu.be/KKGWvqJyDiA
Files
1 itemsPublications
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Governing insecurity in a Nordic welfare state during sustainability crisis: Rethinking epistemic standpoints of Finnish labour law and family law
Ylhäinen, Marjo; Mustasaari, Sanna. 2025. Retfaerd: nordisk juridisk tidsskrift. 48: 59-72 A1 Journal article (refereed), original research -
KKO 2024:46 Lapsen etu ja adoption vahvistaminen ilman juridisen vanhemman suostumusta
Mustasaari, Sanna. Teoksessa: Hoffrén, Mia(toim.) , 2025. KKO:n ratkaisut kommentein II/2024. s. 24-35. Alma Talent B2 Book section -
KKO 2024:52 Kansainvälinen toimivalta ja uhkasakon tuomitsemisen edellytykset lapsen huoltoa koskevan päätöksen täytäntöönpanossa
Mustasaari, Sanna. Teoksessa: Hoffrén, Mia(toim.) , 2025. KKO:n ratkaisut kommentein II/2024. s. 72-81. Alma Talent B2 Book section -
KKO 2024:72 Lapsen puhevallan käyttäminen ja lapsen edun vastaisuutta koskevat väitteet isyyden vahvistamista koskevassa asiassa
Mustasaari, Sanna. Teoksessa: Hoffrén, Mia(toim.) , 2025. KKO:n ratkaisut kommentein II/2024. s. 248-257. Alma Talent B2 Book section -
Merkintöjä itsemurhasurusta erään transelämän ei-elettävyyden äärellä
Mustasaari, Sanna. 2025. Sukupuolentutkimus. 2024; 37: 73-79 B1 Non-refereed journal articles -
Oikeuden ja talouden epistemologisista kytköksistä antroposeenissa: totalisoiva tieto ja eettisyyden haaste
Mustasaari, Sanna; Ylhäinen, Marjo. 2025. Oikeus. 2024; 53: 123-139 A1 Journal article (refereed), original research -
Sukupuoli ja kaipuu järjestykseen
Mustasaari, Sanna. 2025. Politiikasta.fi. : . E1 Popularised article, newspaper article -
'We are here to put the past behind us': violence and welfare governmentality in Finnish family law
Mustasaari, Sanna. 2024. Journal of social welfare and family law. 46: 167-186 A1 Journal article (refereed), original research -
Cross-border child protection cases between Finland and Central-Eastern Europe including Russia
Mustasaari, Sanna. Teoksessa: Duden, Konrad; Wiedemann, Denise(toim.) , 2024. Changing families, changing family law in Europe. s. 195-216. Intersentia A3 Book section, Chapters in research books -
KKO 2023:66 Kieltäytymisperusteet lapsen palauttamista koskevassa asiassa
Mustasaari, Sanna. Teoksessa: Hoffrén, Mia(toim.) , 2024. KKO:n ratkaisut kommentein II/2023. s. 131-145. Alma Talent B2 Book section