Hilja Autto

Hilja Autto is a Full-Time Researcher and Doctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Law, University of Lapland, and a Project Researcher at the University of Vaasa's School of Accounting and Finance, Business Law. She specializes in proactive contracting, legal tech, AI applications in law, and sustainable development. Autto leads three major research projects: HILMARI (carbon compensation schemes), TOIVO (RDI contract toolkits), and BOOST (biodiversity offset contracts). She teaches contract design courses and supervises environmental law theses at the University of Lapland.

Education: Master of Laws (LL.M.).
External Roles: Tuntiopettaja at Laurea University of Applied Sciences (from 2024), Founder of Autto Law & Design (from 2023), and Contract Design Consultant (from 2022).

Research Interests: Autto's work focuses on integrating design thinking and AI into legal frameworks. Her current projects explore:

• AI-driven contract design for environmental agreements
• Visual communication of legal terms in human-robot interactions
• Proactive legal strategies for carbon markets

Key Research Trends: Her publications emphasize AI's transformative role in contract creation, privacy communication in robotics, and biodiversity conservation through contractual frameworks. Recent work highlights interdisciplinary approaches combining law, technology, and sustainability.

Awards: Received the Vuoden selväsanainen 2022 award for clear communication in legal writing.

Grants & Activities: Participated in 7 conferences/presentations (2021–2023), including talks on AI in contract law and legal visualization. Active in EU policy discussions on carbon storage incentives.

Labs/Teams: Member of the Law, Technology and Design Thinking research group at University of Lapland.