Digital Legal Lab Newsletter July

Hi! Thanks for reading the monthly Digital Legal Lab newsletter, where we round up the latest news & views from our cross-university research collaboration on digital legal studies. For more information, updates and events, please visit our website or follow us on social media.

What's new at the Digital Legal Lab

The Digital Legal Lab is excited to announce the fifth edition of its annual conference, Digital Legal Talks, taking place on November 28-29, 2024, in Utrecht. This fully in-person event will feature accepted submissions on November 28, followed by plenary sessions with invited speakers on November 29.

Conference Theme: This year's theme is dedicated to law and digital technologies. Researchers are invited to address various aspects corresponding to the main research areas of the Digital Legal Lab:

• Responsible data sharing and regulation of AI

• Digitalization of justice systems and dispute resolution

• Technology for law and legal practice

• Digital platforms as infrastructures and enforcers of public interests

• Enforcement and the use of technology (including DSA, DMA, AI Act, Data Act)

• Data protection and cybersecurity

• Other relevant topics in the field of law and technology

Submission Guidelines: We welcome both junior and senior researchers to submit published or unpublished papers, or panel proposals, to present and discuss at the conference. Submit an extended abstract of up to 1500 words via Oxford Abstracts, indicating your research line and presentation format (paper, PLSC-style discussion, or panel).

Key Dates:

• Submission Deadline: September 15

• Notification of Acceptance: October 4

• Full Paper Submission (for PLSC-style discussion): November 4

Accepted submissions will be included in the program for November 28, with plenary sessions featuring invited speakers on November 29. Don't miss this opportunity to share and discuss your research on law and digital technologies!

We are excited to announce the release of "The Legal Consistency of Technology Regulation in Europe", edited by our Digital Legal Lab members, Inge Graef and Bart van der Sloot. This open-access book is now available for download.

The book examines technology regulation coherence through three perspectives: the relationship between EU and CoE frameworks, the alignment among various EU frameworks, and the interaction between EU law and Member State law. It covers topics like fundamental rights, market integration, competition, and innovation, evaluating current frameworks and proposing solutions for regulatory inconsistencies.

Congratulations to Inge and Bart on this significant achievement!

On June 21, 2024, Digital Legal Lab member Mireille van Eechoud, Professor of Information Law at the University of Amsterdam, participated in a LERU Talk discussing digital sovereignty for universities and the role of tech companies. Preserving the digital sovereignty of universities and researchers is essential for a successful digital transformation in the university sector. LERU Talks are organized by the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a network of leading European universities committed to innovative research. More information about this LERU Talk can be found here.

Additionally, Prof. van Eechoud was part of a team that conducted research commissioned by the Executive Board of the University of Amsterdam on the digital transformation of universities. This research project, titled “Information Law and the Digital Transformation of the University,” involved eight members of the Institute for Information Law (IViR) and produced reports exploring various aspects of digital sovereignty for universities, including recommendations for universities and policymakers. Read more about this research project here.

Join us for the International Legal Ethics Conference (ILEC) 2024 pre-conference on July 16, 2024. This event will explore AI regulation within the European framework and its impacts on the legal profession. Through interactive sessions, participants will examine the EU AI Act's future implications for legal practice.

Our Digital Legal Lab members, including Ljubiša Metikoš, Natali Helberger, Iris van Donselaar, Eva van der Graaf, and Isabella Banks, are organizing this event. Registration for the main conference remains open until the end of today.

The pre-conference will feature a keynote address by Prof. Pietro Ortolani on “The Future of Dispute Resolution under the AI Act.” Two workshops will delve into the impacts of generative AI on access to justice and the practical aspects of legal tech, led by Kimon Kieslich and Rachel Rietveld, respectively. Additionally, there will be an expert panel discussion moderated by Natali Helberger, featuring Amy Salyzyn, Anna Drozd, Marc de Werd, and Michel van Leeuwen, to discuss the AI Act's relevance and implications for the legal profession.

For more details and to register, visit the ILEC website. Don't miss out on this important event!

The Digital Services Act (DSA), adopted by the European Union on November 1, 2022, aims to set a global standard for accountability and transparency in platform governance. A key feature of the DSA is the requirement for online platforms to issue ‘statements of reasons’ (SoRs) for their content moderation decisions, stored in the DSA Transparency Database, launched by the European Commission in September 2023.

A study by Gerasimos Spanakis and colleagues assesses the efficacy of the Transparency Database in meeting the DSA’s transparency goals by examining both structural transparency and platform compliance. Through legal and empirical analysis, the study identifies transparency improvements but also highlights significant compliance challenges due to platform discretion in reporting practices. Their empirical investigation of a representative sample of 131 million SoRs submitted in November 2023 evaluates the transparency of platform content moderation activities.

On June 27, 2024, Ljubiša Metikoš, a PhD researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Information Law (IViR), RPA HumanE AI, and the Paul Scholten Centre for Jurisprudence, published an opinion piece titled ‘The AI Act: Weak, Weaker, Weakest’ in MediaForum.

Metikoš examines the AI Act, highlighting several issues, particularly the lack of transparency in the legislative process, which hampers academics' ability to serve as public watchdogs. He points out the influence of powerful Big Tech lobby groups that promoted the idea that AI regulation would hinder Europe in the global AI race. As a result, the final version of the AI Act consists of a series of diluted regulations with numerous exceptions.