By Anna Husted Hjerrild Hansen and Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

Almost 1,200 participants from the cream of the Danish central administration, municipalities, regions and law firms gathered in Aalborg Congress & Culture Center (AKKC) from 29 to 30 May. Here, the Department of Law at Aalborg University held its annual administrative law conference, which in just a few years has become the largest legal conference in the country.

Conference with growing pains

Professor Sten Bønsing, Professor and Deputy Head of Department at the Department of Law, is the initiator of the conference, which has been held every other year since 2018, and 500 lawyers participated in the first conference. The other day, they were 1,200 participants – which is the maximum number that could be accommodated in AKKC.

"There has been a huge interest in participating. We had to report sold out three months before the conference, and there have been over 100 on the waiting list. I can reveal here that we are now trying to switch to holding the conference every year," says Sten Bønsing.

He sees the great support for the conference as a huge recognition of the fact that the Department of Law at AAU is incredibly strong in social law, digitalisation and administrative law in particular.

Broadly composed program

As Sten Bønsing sees it, there are several reasons why the conference has become so popular.

"People like that there are four parallel tracks that you can freely choose from. You are not bound in any way in advance to what you want to hear. So there's no 'I've heard that topic' – you just choose something else," he explains.

This year, the conference offered a total of 31 presentations on everything from climate and environmental regulation, digital legal security, artificial intelligence, social law, the law of the child and children's rights, as well as the use of health data. In other words, there were lots of new and exciting insights to be gained. The program included keynote speakers such as the Parliamentary Ombudsman Niels Fenger and Supreme Court President Jens Peter Christensen.

From the start, the purpose of the conference has been to create a connection between the practical world and research, says the professor:

"We can enrich each other both ways. And then it is actually an independent goal to provide some form of continuing education offer to many public employees in particular, who work a lot with administrative law. Their course budgets are tight, and we can keep a low price because there are so many participants," he adds.

Network and joy of reunion

It is Sten Bønsing's impression that the participants have also become very happy with the network of peers. Many of the participants are lawyers from municipalities – from all over the country. In addition, he estimates that 25 percent are lawyers, and the rest come from ministerial ministries, universities, etc.

In addition to being impressed by the many exciting presentations, one of the things that has made the greatest impression on the professor is precisely the great joy of reunion he has experienced among the participants.

"I am really happy when I hear people during the breaks: "Are you here too?" You can hear when people meet old classmates, former colleagues – or current colleagues," he says.

Festive references

This is perhaps also why the conference is referred to by many participants as "The legal cousin party".

On LinkedIn, however, it is especially the term "lawyers' Roskilde Festival" that is repeated. A term that even Rector Per Michael Johansen had noticed and referred to in his opening speech.

"I'm actually in doubt about who first made the comparison, but it was something that the participants have been talking about ever since the first administrative law conference in 2018," says a happy and satisfied Sten Bønsing after the conference.

Read more about the conference here (In Danish)