Two new honorary doctors appointed
Antje du Bois-Pedain and Elina Pirjatanniemi. Photos: Daniel Bates and Åbo Akademis bildbank, respectively
The Faculty Board of the Faculty of Law at Uppsala University has appointed Antje du Bois-Pedain, Cambridge, and Elina Pirjatanniemi, Turku, as honorary doctors of law at the 2026 winter conferment ceremony.
Professor Antje du Bois-Pedain
Professor Antje du Bois-Pedain is Professor of Criminal Law and Philosophy at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, Deputy Director of the Centre for Penal Theory and Ethics at the Institute of Criminology, and a Fellow of Magdalene College.
At the Faculty of Law, Professor du Bois-Pedain lectures Criminal Law and teaches a seminar course on Select Issues in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. She also runs the Criminal Jurisprudence and Philosophy group for staff and research students across Law and Criminology who work on ethical or theoretical aspects of criminal law and criminal justice.
Professor du Bois-Pedain outlines her research agenda as follows:
“One major strand of my work addresses the philosophical foundations of state punishment and their significance for the application and reform of criminal law. Moving beyond standard retributivist or utilitarian punishment theories, I argue that legitimate state punishment sets reasonable terms for an offender’s continuing relations with the polity in view of his crime. This allows me to incorporate punishment’s rehabilitative orientation into a rights-based understanding of the offender’s relationship to the state, and to provide an innovative theoretical framework for resolving practical questions in the context of sentencing. The second strand of my work is in criminal law theory and doctrine, often with a comparative or transnational dimension. Here I advance novel understandings of fundamental concepts (such as participation in crime) which advance both the theoretical understanding and the practice of the law. I also publish on questions of transitional justice where my 2007 monograph ‘Transitional Amnesty in South Africa’ is considered a classic in the field.”
The grounds for the decision are as follows:
Professor Antje du Bois-Pedain is awarded an honorary doctorate in law for her successful research in the field of criminal law theory and her strong commitment to maintaining and developing international contacts in the field of criminal law and criminal law philosophy.
Professor Elina Pirjatanniemi
Elina Pirjatanniemi is a professor of constitutional law and international law at Åbo Akademi University and director of the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University. Elina Pirjatanniemi is also an associate professor of criminal law at the University of Turku. Her research interests include human rights, migration law, criminal law, the relationship between national and international law, and the relationship between human rights and environmental considerations. She is a leading figure in the Nordic countries in the fields of human rights and migration. She has led and continues to lead a number of scientific projects, often with an interdisciplinary profile, and is a highly productive researcher with a large number (over 200) of publications. She also regularly participates in public debate and writes columns in Finnish newspapers such as Hufvudstadsbladet. For several years, she has also served as a member of the Swedish Research Council's assessment committee for law, philosophy, ethics and criminology. Pirjatanniemi has received several awards for her work in human rights and was appointed Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2019.
The grounds for the decision are as follows:
Professor Elina Pirjatanniemi is appointed honorary doctor of law for her legal research in international law and public law, with a particular focus on human rights, which constitutes a significant contribution to legal science while also contributing to a fact-based and reliable public debate.
The University's honorary doctors are awarded honorary degrees at the winter graduation ceremony, which will take place on 30 January 2026 in the University Hall in Uppsala.
About honorary doctorates
Honorary Doctorates
This title is conferred upon individuals who have done outstanding academic work or in some other way promoted research at the University.
Who can become honorary doctor?
The title of honorary doctor, doctor honoris causa, is conferred upon academics, primarily from abroad, who have established ties with Swedish academic researchers or other individuals who have not taken a doctorate through academic studies but should clearly be inducted into the research community. Actual practice regarding what achievements should be honoured may vary from one institution to another.
However, certain rules apply across the board. It is always the faculties themselves that confer honorary doctorates, not the vice-chancellor or the university management. As Sweden is a small country, the distinction is national in scope. Any person who has attained a doctoral degree based on coursework and a dissertation at a Swedish university is not eligible to be awarded an honorary doctorate at another Swedish institution of higher learning.