The members of the LAWGEM research team had the opportunity to attend the lecture on gender sensitive teaching of legal disciplines, held by Prof. Dr Johanna Niemi, from the University of Turku (Finland), on the second day of kick-off meeting related to the implementation of LAWGEM scientific project. The lecture was held at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, on 13th December 2019, with the support of the OSCE in Belgrade. In her lecture Prof. Dr. Niemi underlined the idea that the most interesting challenge to legal thinking comes from the feminist legal studies that have a close connection to gender studies, and that all lawyers should be familiar with the main ideas about the importance of gender in our thinking and society, including the legal sphere.
Prof. Dr. Johana Niemi holds LLM, Lis.L and JD all from University of Helsinki and trained on the bench in Rovaniemi district court in 1984. She has worked at University of Helsinki 1985-2004 and as vice dean responsible for teaching (2010-2013). Between 2004 and 2010 she worked as professor of law at the Umeå University, and at National Research Institute for Legal Policy. In 1997–1998 she was Fulbright scholar at University of Wisconsin, Madison. Niemi has held several expert functions in the academic community. She was member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (2013-2018) and member of the Finnish Academy Committee on Cultural and Social Sciences (2016-2018). She was Minna Canth Academy Professor 2015-2019. Prof. Dr. Niemi led several research project analyzing the discourses on gender violence in legal contexts. Her book Criminal Procedure and Violence in Intimate Relationship was published (in Finnish) in 2004. She has analysed the liberal undertone of the Finnish rape law in several articles. She has been co-editor of several books, including Responsible Selves. Women in the Nordic Legal Culture (2001) and International Law and Violence against Women: Europe and the Istanbul Convention (2020).
