Status autonomiczny oraz ustrój samorządu Wysp Alandzkich
The autonomous status and the local government system of the Åland Islands

Summary/Abstract: The autonomous status of the Åland Islands and the system of its self-government against Finland’s territorial and administrative structure constitute a fascinating research area in the field of constitutional law and political systems. Such research makes it possible to determine which principles of the system of the division into territorial units possessing autonomous status within the territorial structure of the state and its self-government should be introduced at the legal, constitutional and statutory level in order to ensure the population inhabiting it with a sufficient level of separateness and independence, protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, and at the same time guarantee the territorial integrity of the state. The study also makes it possible to determine which legal mechanisms and instruments of the organization and functioning of autonomous regions, distinguished by some specific feature, need to be applied in order for the system of such a unit to be effective in the performance of public tasks of their own and those commissioned by state authorities by self-government bodies of this region and to enable the self-government of the region serving its citizens at its best. In the case of Finland, it is of great importance for the protection of fundamental human and civil rights and freedoms, especially for ethnically and culturally separate social groups. The aim of this study is the legal analysis of the autonomous status and the local government system of the Åland Islands, applied and currently functioning in Finland, and its subject is an exegesis of the norms concerning the subject matter under the study, contained in the Fundamental Law of 1999 being in force in Finland and the relevant statutory regulations, as well as practices of the functioning of this region within the state from the perspective of its division into other basic units and the system of local government.

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