Every year in the final week of January, experts from public administration, authorities, ministries, and the judiciary gather in Goslar for the German Traffic Law Conference (Deutscher Verkehrsgerichtstag). While the focus traditionally lies on road traffic, rail, maritime, and aviation transport are included in the program on a rotating annual basis. In 2026, discussions centered on how drones could be better integrated into the existing legal framework. The outcome: concrete demands addressed to the EU and national lawmakers.

With the rapid spread of automobiles in the mid-20th century, growing discrepancies between existing traffic laws and technological advances became increasingly apparent. The German Traffic Law Conference was established in Goslar as a forum to address these issues with broad participation from legal practitioners.

A similar situation appears to be emerging regarding the integration of uncrewed systems into the overall mobility ecosystem. Here, too, it can be observed that technological reality has significantly outpaced the regulatory framework – and that the German Academy for Transport Sciences is striving to close this gap.

Shared airspace

For this reason, the organizing association of the German Traffic Law Conference placed the topic „How many and what kind of drones can the airspace accommodate?” on the agenda for its 64th edition. The discussions within Working Group VIII aimed to develop recommendations on how lawmakers could adequately address the interests and specific characteristics of both manned and unmanned aviation within a shared airspace while maintaining a high level of aviation safety.

The thematic framework was established through three presentations. Corinna Bleienh…