The first RECs were established in Finland shortly after the Declaration of Helsinki was issued in 1964. By the 1980's there were RECs in every university hospital and most large hospitals. These were unofficial however and did not necessarily protect the rights of the research subjects. Since joining the Council of Europe in 1992, there has been new biomedical legislation and the existence of RECs is based on the Medical Research Act 488/1999.

There are 6 national ethics commissions in Finland which have different remits but work closely together. They give opinions on various areas of research although most of them do not give legally binding judgements. The board for gene technology and the sub-committee on Medical Research Ethics give opinions that are necessary for initiation of clinical trials. The REC system is essentially a regional one in that every health care district must have at least 1 ethics committee in its area.