Conference programme
13th Nordic Law Libraries Conference May 7-9 2025 Turku, Finland
Presentation slides will be made available to the participants after the event.
Pre-meeting for Law Firms
18:00–20:00
In connection with the 13th Nordic Law Libraries Conference there will be a private session for Nordic law firm librarians/information specialists etc., where they can share their insights on the conference theme. Edelle Attorneys at Law Ltd will host the session at their office (Olavintie 2, Turku). The possibility for expressing interest in attending the pre-meeting has closed.
9.00 Registration and coffee
10.00 Heli Kautonen, Library Director, Turku University Library: Opening speech
10.15 Janne Salminen, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Turku: Keynote speech - Revisiting the idea of law libraries for our own time
The talk will address the shifts in the functions of law libraries. Traditionally, law libraries have been seen as repositories of legal knowledge and resources. They serve several key functions, such as housing extensive collections of legal texts, including statutes, case law, legal journals, and treatises; providing support for legal research, offering access to both physical and digital resources; playing a significant role in legal education, supporting law students and faculty with the resources they need for coursework, teaching, and scholarship; and contributing to the broader goal of access to justice, helping individuals understand their legal rights and obligations. What are the contemporary changes? Libraries are undergoing transformations to adapt to current needs and technologies. The shift to digital resources is one of the profound changes. Additionally, libraries are redesigning their spaces to be more flexible and multifunctional, accommodating collaborative work, technology use, and events. With the rise of digital resources, access to legal information has become more widespread. As more information becomes digital, law libraries must preserve digital legal information to ensure long-term access. Of course, research and education support remains a crucial function.
11.00 Mia Korpiola, Professor of Legal History, University of Turku: VirTuAr: Reconstructing the older archive of the Turku Court of Appeal
11.30 Group photo
11.45 Lunch at Macciavelli, Educarium building, Assistentinkatu 5
13.00 Paula Klami-Wetterstein, Supreme Court of Finland: Hur används biblioteket vid rättskipning? – Föredragandens syn på biblioteket. Followed by a commentary by Erika Bergström, Chief Information Officer at Finland’s Library of Parliament
13.45 A word from our sponsor: De Gruyter Brill
14.00 Coffee and meeting the sponsors
14.30 Walk from Calonia to guided tour starting points (participants will be accompanied). Duration of the tours: 1-1,5 h. If you are arriving independently, the starting points are:
- Feeniks Library (Turku University Library), Henrikinkatu 2
- Arcanum Library (Turku University Library), Arcanuminkuja 1
- Turku Main Library (City Library), Linnankatu 4 or
- Turku Court of Appeal, Hämeenkatu 11
18.00 Guided tour at Aboa Vetus Ars Nova museum, Itäinen Rantakatu 4–6 (please make your own way to the museum):
- Aboa Vetus, archaeological museum, or
- Ars Nova, museum of contemporary art
19.00 Reception with light cocktail snacks at the Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum (1.5 hours)
8.30 Coffee
9.00 Lassi Toppinen, Information Specialist, Turku University Library: Searching for patent information
10.00 Presentation of video and posters:
- Video by the Danish Parliament Information Centre
- Posters by Swedish Parliament Library and Lund University, Sweden (research support and student support)
10.15 Coffee, meeting the sponsors, and viewing the posters
10.45 Mona Lehtinen, Information Specialist, National Library of Finland: Introduction to the Annif automated indexing tool and the Finto AI service
11.15 Filip Ginter: Large language models for textual data curation and information extraction
11.45 Lunch at PiccuMaccia, Educarium building, Assistentinkatu 5
13.00 Katarína Lenghardtová, Publications Office of the European Union: Making EU law more easy to find an understand through AI (a case for EUR-Lex)
13.30 Small group discussions. The aim is to catch up with colleagues and reflect on recent changes in our field of work. If relevant, participants are encouraged to share any recent experiences or developments related to artificial intelligence. Participants will be divided into groups based on organisation type.
15.00 Coffee and meeting the sponsors
15.30 - 16.00 Summary of small group discussions
9.00 Coffee
9.30 Martti Koskenniemi, Academician of Science and Professor Emeritus of International Law, University of Helsinki: War and law - Reflections on current crises
The lecture examines the effort to govern war by law from its 19th century beginnings to the 21st century emergence of “lawfare”, the integration of law as an aspect of the strategies of States at war. Why has it been impossible to declare all war as “illegal”? Efforts to restrain the conduct of hostilities have coexisted with ever increasing numbers of civilian victims? Why? The talk will focus both on the difficulties of legal pacifism and just war (ius ad bellum) as well as the consequences of modern “humanization” and simultaneous perpetuation of war (ius in bello).
10.30 Coffee and meeting the sponsors
11.00 Erkka Rautio, Senior Specialist, Library of the Finnish Parliament: From data to Insight: Communicating parliamentary affairs through information design
11.45 Marjaana Sjölund, Project researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Turku: Transparency to law-drafting: Consolidating public decision-making documents into an open access data repository
12.15 Thanks and passing on the baton
12.30 Light lunch at Calonia lobby
13.15 Walk from Calonia to guided tour starting points (participants will be accompanied). Please note the change in schedule! If you are arriving independently, the starting points are:
- Explore Medieval Turku: outside Turku Cathedral, Tuomiokirkonkatu 1
- Vices of the Old Turku: outside Turku Cathedral, Tuomiokirkonkatu 1 or
- Historical and Academic Turku through the Ages: outside Feeniks Library, Henrikinkatu 2
The walking tours (1.5 hours) begin at approximately 13.30