Trine Schultz

Trine Schultz serves as Professor with special responsibilities and Head of Department at the Department of Law, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Aalborg University. She leads the Social Law Research Center (SLRC) and heads a major externally funded project on municipal application of law for vulnerable children and youth. Additionally, she serves on the University's Equality and Diversity Committee and Information Security Committee.

Her research centers on:

• Social Law and Administrative Law frameworks
• Children's Rights implementation per UN Convention
• Legal Security in social services
• Regulation of child welfare systems

She examines intersections between administrative procedures and social service delivery, emphasizing child-centered legal reforms.

Recent publications (2024-2025) critically analyze Denmark's Child Act, exposing legislative gaps in foster care systems, disability case handling, and procedural safeguards. Her scholarship consistently identifies contradictions undermining legal security while advocating for coherent frameworks that balance administrative efficiency with children's rights protection.

Schultz has supervised three PhD projects addressing force against placed youth (2012-2015), children's procedural rights in forced placements (2015-2018), and social workers as legal actors (2018-2021). She currently leads the EU-funded RESPONSIVE project (2023-2026) enhancing citizen voice in European social services and previously directed national projects on social law for children and youth.

As head of the Social Law Research Center, she coordinates interdisciplinary research on social legislation. She actively participates in the Nordic Child Rights Network, organizing international conferences and facilitating cross-border collaboration among child law scholars across Scandinavia.