13th Nordic Law Libraries Conference (former Nordiska Juridiska Biblioteksmötet) will be held in Turku, Finland, May 7 - 9 2025. The conference brings together law library professionals from across the Nordic countries. The event is hosted by Turku University Library.
Theme of the conference is From Archives to AI: Law Libraries in the Age of Digital Transformation.
Information will be updated on these pages as the program and event arrangements progress.
Final deadline for registration is April 7 2025.
Questions on participation fees and invoicing aboaevents@certia.fi
The registration fees
The early bird fee of 220 eur is available until March 5. After this date, the standard registration fee will be 270 eur.
The registration fees include:
Attendance in the programme and exhibition at the conference venue
Conference materials, coffee and lunch on the conference days as marked in the program
Welcome reception on May 7
Guided tour to Aboa Vetus and Ars Nova on May 7
Guided tours on May 7 and 9
If you would like to attend the conference dinner, a separate fee of 45 eur (+ VAT) applies.
Methods of payment
Credit card payment
On the registration form, choose the credit card payment and fill in the payment card details. Payment service provider Paytrail Plc*Online bank payment (for Finnish/Nordic banks only)
On the registration form, choose your bank, and you will be forwarded to the payment service. Payment service provider Paytrail Plc*PDF invoice (payment with bank transfer).
An invoicing fee of 15 EUR will be added. The PDF invoice will be sent to your e-mail address after you have submitted your registration. In case you are not paying the invoice yourself, please forward it to the right person.E-invoice (for Finnish organisations only).
An invoicing fee of 15 EUR will be added. The e-invoice will be sent directly to the e-invoicing address provided.
Invoices: Please make sure to give the correct invoicing address. An extra invoicing charge of 10 EUR will be added if a new invoice is processed (revised PDF or e-invoice due to a wrong address, or otherwise modified).
*Paytrail Plc (VAT FI21228397) acts as a collecting payment service provider in cooperation with Finnish banks and credit institutions. Paytrail Plc is authorized payment institution. Paytrail Plc appears as the payee on the bank statement or card invoice and forwards the payment to the event organizer. In case of reclamations, please contact the event organiser.
The registration fees are invoiced by Certia Oy, Aboa Events (VAT FI23274223) on behalf of the local organiser University of Turku, (VAT FI02458963).
All payments must be made in euros (EUR). The registration fees are not subject to VAT, except for separate dinner tickets where VAT 25,5% is applied.
Cancellation policy & insurance
Cancellation of registration must be made in writing (email) to aboaevents@certia.fi before April 7 2025. No fees will be refunded after this date. A processing fee of EUR 50 will be deducted from all refunds.
In the event that the meeting is cancelled by the Meeting Organisers, or cannot take place for any reason outside the control of the Meeting Organisers, the registration fee shall be refunded in full. The liability of the Meeting Organiser shall be limited to that refund.
Insurance
Please note that the meeting participants are not covered by any insurance (travel, medical, accident or liability) taken by the Meeting Organisers. The Meeting Organisers cannot accept liability for any loss or damage suffered by any participant or accompanying person or another person during travel to and from the meeting or during the meeting. Participants are advised to consider purchasing their own travel insurance and to extend their personal policy to cover personal possessions.
Change of participant
At any time after registration, in case you will be unable to attend for any reason, you will have the opportunity to send a colleague in your place at no additional cost. In such case, please contact Aboa Events at aboaevents@certia.fi as soon as possible.
peaker introductions will be added here as the programme develops.
Heli J. Kautonen
Library Director, Turku University Library
Opening speech
Heli Kautonen is the Library Director of the Turku University Library. She earned her PhD degree at the Aalto University School of Science in usability research. Her career includes working for the National Library of Finland and the Finnish Literature Society Library. She has served in the Executive Board of LIBER since 2019, and she is the chair of the Liber Quarterly journal’s Editorial Board. Her recent research interests focus on academic libraries’ competencies in the age of digitalisation and, especially, artificial intelligence.
Janne Salminen
Professor, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Turku
Keynote speech - Revisiting the idea of law libraries for our own time
In my talk, I 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.
https://www.utu.fi/en/people/janne-salminen
Mia Korpiola
Professor of Legal History, University of Turku
Presentation topic: VirTuAr: Reconstructing the older archive of the Turku Court of Appeal
Mia Korpiola has published extensively on the influence on learned law on Swedish medieval and early modern law, the history of legal work and various other topics.
Juha Vesala
LL.D., Title of Docent, University of Turku, University Lecturer
Presentation topic: Copyright Issues with Developing and Using Artificial Intelligence
Juha Vesala focuses on artificial intelligence issues in intellectual property, competition law and other legislation. He has examined AI development and use in the contexts of content production, health and social care and emotional intelligence.
Mona Lehtinen
Information Specialist, National Library of Finland
Presentation topic: Introduction to the Annif automated indexing tool and the Finto AI service
I work mainly with automated subject indexing and AI in general. My responsibilities encompass e.g. project coordination, fostering community engagement, building corpora, and testing the latest features of the automatic indexing tool Annif.
https://www.kansalliskirjasto.fi/en/persons/mona-lehtinen-2399
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4735-0214
Filip Ginter
Professor, Department of Computing, University of Turku
Presentation topic: Large language models for textual data curation and information extraction
Ginter is a professor of computer science, specializing in natural language processing. His main focus areas are machine learning, large-scale data processing, and applications of large language models to information extraction. He also has a long-lasting research interest in applications of language technology in digital humanities.
https://www.utu.fi/en/people/filip-ginter
Martti Koskenniemi
Academician of Science and Professor Emeritus of International Law, University of Helsinki
Presentation topic: 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).
Martti Koskenniemi is a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has held several visiting professorships across the world. He has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Uppsala, McGill, Frankfurt, Tartu, Brussels (VUB) and the European University Institute (EUI, Florence).
His main publications include From Apology to Utopia; The Structure of International Legal Argument (1989/2005), The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870-1960 (2001. His most recent publication is a joint work with Professor David Kennedy (Harvard), Of Law and the World. Critical Conversations on Power, History and Political Economy (2023).
https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/martti-koskenniemi
Erkka Rautio
Senior Specialist, Library of the Finnish Parliament
Presentation topic: From data to insight: Communicating parliamentary affairs through information design
A librarian at heart, Erkka is an information specialist with a keen interest in open data and data/visual literacy. His daily bread and butter involve helping people better understand parliamentary and legislative matters.
www.linkedin.com/in/erkkarautio
Marjaana Sjölund
Project researcher, University of Turku, Faculty of Law
Presentation topic: Transparency to Law-Drafting: Consolidating Public Decision-Making Documents into an Open Access Data Repository
LL.M., M.Sc. (Tech) Marjaana Sjölund is a project researcher in the LAWPOL project. Combining expertise in both IT and legal domains, her tasks bridge technology and law. Her work involves e.g. exploring historical legislative drafting materials and converting them into machine-readable format, testing the semantic similarity of various texts and conceptualizing a generative language model under the working title "Tarmo Bot". Her own research focuses specifically on law drafting and the public documents generated during the drafting process.
Please share with us an innovation or best practice from your library! It could be a new way to reach out to users, the implementation of AI tools, the improvement of work processes, or something entirely different. Your innovation – small or big – is valuable. We are all eager to learn from each other. Please submit a poster or a video to showcase your work!
Innovation posters
Size: vertical A0 (or smaller).
Printing options: We can print the poster on your behalf if you provide the file in advance. Alternatively, you can bring it with you.
Display: Posters will be displayed in the conference area throughout the event.
Introduction: We ask you to briefly introduce your poster to the delegates as part of the programme. The introduction should be no longer than five minutes, focusing on key points rather than detailed content. After your introduction, we’d like for you to be available at the poster display area to answer any questions.
Publication: Posters will be published on the conference website with your consent.
Submission instructions
By 1 April: email nll2025@utu.fi to confirm your poster submission. Please specify whether you will send us the file for printing, or you will bring the poster yourself.
By 25 April (if we print): send the poster file to nll2025@utu.fi. Preferred file format is PDF Standard (publishing online and printing).
Innovation videos
Length: up to 5 minutes.
Presentation: Videos will be shown to the delegates during the conference.
Publication: Videos will be published on the conference website with your consent.
Submission instructions
By 1 April: email nll2025@utu.fi to confirm your video submission.
By 2 May: provide a link to download the video.
Wednesday 7 May
- Guided tours, please choose one upon registration
- Feeniks Library (Turku University Library): Feeniks Library houses the languages collections in the customer premises and the legal depository collection in the large closed stacks. Many of library's functions are located in the Feeniks Library and it houses the most working space for library staff.
- Arcanum Library (Turku University Library) : Arcanum Library houses the collections for history, culture and arts studies and it has versatile study spaces for students.
- Turku Main Library (City Library)
- Turku Court of Appeal
- Guided tour at Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum of Archaeology and Contemporary Art, please choose one upon registration
- Aboa Vetus, the only archaeological museum in Finland, is a town quarter discovered underground. The ruin area of Aboa Vetus includes the remains of medieval houses. The Convent Riverfront, one of medieval Turku’s main streets, still runs through the museum area today. Unfortunately Aboa Vetus is not accessible.
- Ars Nova
The Aboa Vetus Ars Nova Foundation Art Collection is a varied assemblage of works from the recent history of Finnish and other Western art. The collection’s oldest works date from the end of the 19th century, but the emphasis is on works originating from after the 1950s to the present day. Exhibitions in May 2025 will be Grönlund-Nisunen and Raisa Raekallio & Misha del Val: Milieu.
- Reception at Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum
Thursday 8 May
- Conference dinner
Friday 9.5.
- Guided walking tours in Turku, please choose one upon registration
- Explore Medieval Turku (1,5h)
In Finland, the Middle Ages started in the 1150s. At this time Turku was an important commercial port. According to latest research the town was established early 1300's. Medieval Turku is to be found but it needs a bit of exploring Our guide will tell you stories and help you imagine how Turku looked like all those years back. - Vices of the Old Turku (1,5h)
On his time, Count Gustaf Mauritz Armfeld named Turku a rathole where all the seeds of evil came from. And Bishop Rothovies blamed the Turku people to live in sin and the sins be so numerous he could not name them.
On this walking tour we will walk through the streets and alleys of Turku, and discuss the historical sins and vices, and their punishments. - Historical and Academic Turku through Ages (1,5h)
The walk talks about the history of Turku and Finland, as well as the history of universities. Walk from the university to the cathedral and along the river bank.
- Explore Medieval Turku (1,5h)
Calonia Bulding at University of Turku campus
Street address: Caloniankuja 3, Turku, Finland
Onsite check-in desk: On Wednesday first floor lobby by the main entrance
- on Thursday and Friday, please check in at Calonia Library customer service (the first floor)
Program auditorium Calonia 1: entrance from the first floor lobby
Group session rooms
- Rooms 1006 and 1067 are located on the first floor.
- Rooms 2107, 2108 and 2109 are located on second floor of the building. Access is via stairs or elevator from the main lobby.
There are free wireless networks available on site: Eduroam and UTU Visitor.
Calonia building and conference rooms are accessible. Social program sites may have limitations in accessibility.
If you have needs considering accessibility at the conference, please contact our accessibility contact person Päivi Letonsaari to discuss possible special arrangements.
Päivi Letonsaari nll2025@utu.fi
Visit Turku website offers the the best advice on how to arrive in Turku. Please visit Travelling to and around Turku!
With many events taking place during this time, hotels are expected to fill up quickly. We strongly recommend making your reservations early to ensure availability.
Quota reservations for the delegates are no longer available.
Turku local traffic bus line number 1 runs between the airport and the city centre. The journey takes about 25 minutes. From the centre there are multiple lines to the university campus. Please consult the Föli online route and timetable service for detailed information.
After check-in onsite you can use the QR code on your conference name plate for free bus rides on Turku local traffic Föli during the event May 7-9. Hop on the yellow buses!
Contact us by email nll2025@utu.fi
Questions on participation fees and invoicing aboaevents@certia.fi
Event organisers:
Maija Nurmi
Information specialist, Turku University Library
Johanna Viitanen
Information specialist, Turku University Library
Päivi Letonsaari
Assistant librarian, Turku University Library
If your organization would like to support the event or learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please feel free to reach out to us via email nll2025@utu.fi.
Event is supported by
Silver Sponsor
TradeLawGuide, an online database for researching WTO law. TradeLawGuide offers nine research tools that enable serious and methodical research of WTO law, an online Learning Centre (which provides videos and manuals on how to use each of the research tools), commentaries on recent WTO cases along with helpful papers (e.g., How to Research WTO Law, The Role of Jurisprudence in WTO law, and WTO Law in Investment Treaty Arbitration). Briefly, the main research tools are: The Subject Navigator, which indexes information by subject matter and links to the agreements, instruments, jurisprudence and other documents. It has been described as an electronic textbook. The Annotated Agreements provide detailed annotations that structure and explain the jurisprudence. The Article Citator provides pinpoint references and links to jurisprudence on all provisions of more than 70 agreements and instruments and provides concise summaries of the jurisprudence. The Jurisprudence Citators enable you to ascertain the status of passages in WTO jurisprudence and “update” or “shepardize” passages. The Intepretation tool provides all of the legal principles and jurisprudence on the rules of treaty interpretation. We offer free 30 day auto IP access trials.
Exhibitor
At Oxford University Press, we’re part of one of the greatest universities in the world, and everything we do furthers the University of Oxford’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Our academic publishing programme serves scholars, teachers and researchers, publishing important and rigorous research and scholarship across subject areas stretching from History to Life Sciences to Economics.
The Academic Division of OUP comprises journals publishing, research and reference publishing, Higher Education, and academic dictionaries. We also publish Sheet Music.
