Educating Future Guardians of the Rule of Law

Activity: Talk or presentation typesLecture and oral contribution

Ida Helene Asmussen - Speaker

Werner Schäfke - Speaker

Danish public administration has experienced numerous scandals in the past decades, in which ministers, their state secretaries, and other top level civil servants broke administrative law. And the number of scandals is unabated in the wake of the rise of populism, in which ministers ever more openly question the necessity of the rule of law. These scandals indicate that the role of state secretaries and other top level civil servants has changed in Denmark in the past 30 years. But what can be done to strengthen the rule of law in Danish public administration? The issue has been publicly discussed time and again, and two commissions have made suggestions. These suggestions included further professional development for civil servants on professional ethics and improved transparency in public institutions. However, public institutions proved resistant to any substantial changes. So what else can be done to make top level civil servants identify so strongly with the rule of law that they feel more obliged to society in general than the whims of politicians? In this talk, we make suggestions on how to improve the quality of legal education in Denmark, as the legal profession has a strong foothold in the top level of public administration, and used to function as the architects and guardians of the rule of law in modern Denmark.
20 Mar 2018

External organisation (University)

NameEuropa-Universität Flensburg
LocationAuf dem Campus 1
CityFlensburg
Country/TerritoryGermany

ID: 192044779