ALTEP-DP Research line 1

Research Line 1: Automation of legal protection?

RL 1 focusses on the nature of automation as either a form of or a means for compliance with the GDPR. Such inquiry into automated compliance requires keen attention to three types of questions. 

1. Legal interpretation of the provisions of the GDPR that may lend themselves to automation. 

2. Technical interpretability of the automation. 

3. The need for lawyers to understand enough about issues of computer science to decide about the extent to which automation actually contributes to compliance.

To cope with these questions the research line has three innovative and original objectives: 

A. Making the difference between legal protection by design and legal by design, 

B. Detecting legal and technical interpretability issues (including their interaction), and, 

C. Achieving a critical understanding of the vocabulary and grammar of computer science (to ensure that automation does not hamper but enhances practical and effective data protection).

Please note that RL1 is closely aligned with the ERC ADG project ‘Counting as a human being in the rea of computational law’ (COHUBICOL), basically focusing the more generic inquiry into the automation of law to the domain of data protection law.

ALTEP-DP conference Re-articulating Data?, 20 October 2023, at Univesitaire Stichting, 9h30-16h45. (Program here)

Tatiana Duarte

• Duarte, T., 'Google and Apple Exposure Notifications System: Exposure Notifications or Notified Exposures?', Gryszczyńska, A., Polański, P., Gruschka, N., Rannenberg, K., Adamczyk, M. (eds) Privacy Technologies and Policy, APF Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13279, Springer (2022) 
• Duarte, T., 'Google and Apple Exposure Notifications System: Exposure Notifications or Notified Exposures?'. LawArxiv (2020)

Desara Dushi

• Dushi, D., Naretto, F. & Pratesi, F (2023) Preface. In Murukannaiah, P.K. and Hirzle, T. (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop at the Second International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence co-located with the Second International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence (HHAI 2023). CEUR Workshop Proceedings. 1-6
• Dushi, D., et al. (2022) Preface. in Dushi, D. (ed.), Naretto, F. (ed.), Panigutti, C. (ed.) & Pratesi, F. (ed.) (2022) Proceedings of the Workshop on Imagining the AI Landscape after the AI Act (IAIL) co-located with 1st International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Vol. 3221 (2022)  
• Dushi, Desara. "Human Rights in the Era of Automated Decision Making and Predictive Technologies", GC Human Rights Preparedness (11 April 2022) and on Asia Blogs (12 April 2022) 

Mireille Hildebrandt

• Hildebrandt, M., 'Ground-Truthing in the European Health Data Space', Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - BIOSTEC, 15-22 (2023)
• Hildebrandt, M., '‘Boundary Work between Computational “Law” and “Law-as-We-Know-It” ' in Deirdre Curtin and Mariavittoria Catanzariti (eds.), 'Data at the Boundaries of European Law', OUP (2023)
• Hildebrandt, M., 'Qualification and Quantification in Machine Learning. From Explanation to Explication', Sociologica, Vol. 16 No. 3 (2022).
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘The Issue of Proxies and Choice Architectures. Why EU Law Matters for Recommender Systems’, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 5. (2022) 
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Algometrisch strafrecht: spiegel of echoput, Kunstmatige intelligentie in het strafrecht’, Delikt en Delinkwent, 51 (2021)
• Hildebrandt, M., The issue of bias - The Framing Powers of Machine Learning. in Marcello Pelillo. Teresa Scantamburlo (eds.) Machines We Trust. Perspectives on Dependable AI (MIT Press) (2021)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘The Adaptive Nature of Text-Driven Law’, Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law 1 (1) (2021)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Understanding Law and the Rule of Law: A Plea to Augment CS Curricula’, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 64 no. 5 (2021) 
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Discrimination, Data-driven AI Systems and Practical Reason’, European Data Protection Law Review, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2021)
• Hildebrandt, M., 'The adaptive nature of text-driven law', Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law, Vol. 1 (2021)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘The Artificial Intelligence of European Union Law’, German Law Journal 21, no. 1 (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Smart Technologies’, Internet Policy Review 9 (4) (2020). 
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘A Philosophy of Technology for Computational Law’, invited chapter in David Mangan, Catherine Easton, Daithí Mac Síthig (eds.) The Philosophical Foundations of Information Technology Law, Oxford University Press (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Code-Driven Law: Freezing the Future and Scaling the Past’. In Is Law Computable?: Critical Perspectives on Law and Artificial Intelligence, edited by Christopher Markou and Simon Deakin, Hart Publishing (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M., 'The adaptive nature of text-driven law', Journal of Cross-disciplinary Research in Computational Law (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M., Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folk, Oxford: OUP (2020) open access
• Hildebrandt, M. and Kieron O’Hara (ed.), Life and the Law in the Era of Data-Driven Agency, Edward Elgar (2020)
  • With Kieron O’Hara, Introduction: Life and the law in the era of data-driven agency, 1-15
  • With Kieron O’Hara, Between the editors, 16-43
  • Life and the law in the era of machine agency, 253-64
• Hildebrandt, M. ‘The Artificial Intelligence of European Union Law’, German Law Journal 21, no. 1 (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M. ‘De soeverein is niet thuis. Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) en Attribute Based Credentials (ABC)’, Ars Aequi, Special issue ‘Privacy’, July (2019) 
• Hildebrandt, M. ‘Remembering Ian Kerr: On “Prediction, Pre-Emption, Presumption: The Path of Law After the Computational Turn”’. Technology Law - JOTWELL. The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) September (2019)
• Looking Back on Looking Forward, in Marleen Wynants (ed), Go With the Flow and Stay With The Trouble, STAL – Sciences, Arts & Technologies Lab. A joint project by BOZAR, VUB and ULB, Milano: SylvanaEditoriale (2020) 
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Voorzorg’. Tijdschrift Privacy & Persoonsgegevens (2) (2020) 
• Hildebrandt, M. Computationeel tegenspel: de nieuwe ruimte van het recht (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M. Invited feedback to the European Commission on its White Paper on AI (2020)
• General co-Chair of the ACM-FAccT (formerly FAT) conference (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Countermovements to Reinstate Countervailing Powers. On Julie E. Cohen. Between Truth and Power: The Legal Constructions of Informational Capitalism’, Technology Law - JOTWELL - The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (2020)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Privacy as Protection of the Incomputable Self: From Agnostic to Agonistic Machine Learning’, Theoretical Inquiries in Law. 20, 1 (2019)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘De soeverein is niet thuis. Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) en Attribute Based Credentials (ABC)’, Ars Aequi, Special issue ‘Privacy’ (2019) 
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Digital Security and Human Rights : A Plea for Counter-Infringement Measures’, in Human Rights, Digital Society and the Law, ed. Mart Susi, Taylor & Francis (2019)
• Hildebrandt, M., ‘Remembering Ian Kerr: On “Prediction, Pre-Emption, Presumption: The Path of Law After the Computational Turn”’ - JOTWELL - The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (2019) 

Tatiana Duarte

Presentations

• 'Sense and Flexibility: Searching for a Working Definition of Compliance', at the Philosophers' Seminar, organized by ALTEP DP and Cohubicol research projects, CPDP 2023, 26 May 2023
• Compliance by design versus Legal Protection by Design, Universität Bielefeld, 29 June 2022
• 'Google and Apple Exposure Notifications System: Exposure Notifications or Notified Exposures?', Annual Privacy Forum, Warsaw, 24 June 2022
• Google and Apple Exposure Notifications - a talk of CS and Law with Carmela Troncoso (EPFL) and Tatiana Duarte (LSTS), 3^rd March 2021

Desara Dushi

Presentations

• Co-chair of the 2nd International Workshop on Imagining the AI Landscape After the AI Act (In conjunction with the Second International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence) IAIL2023, Munich, June 26-30 2023
• Invited speaker at the workshop ‘Towards a World of Digital Courts: Impacts on Child Justice’ of the Annual Seminar A 360° View on Child Friendly Justice’, organized by Terre des hommes Foundation and the Global Initiative on Justice with Children, Brussels, 14 October 2022 
• Invited discussant at the LAST-JD RIOLE annual conference, Leuven, 8 July 2022
• Focal Point and moderator of the session on Criminal Justice in Cyberspace: Where are we and where are we heading? At EuroDIG 2022, Trieste, 21 June 2022
• Guest lecture “The use of facial recognition technology in EU law enforcement: Fundamental rights implications”, DCAF Young Faces program, Trieste, 22 June 2022
• Guest lecture “Artificial Intelligence: the impact on legal profession” Guest lecturer at the Winter School on Computational Law and Cybernetics, organized by Beder University College in partnership with SEEDIG, 16 December 2021
• Invited discussant at the JURIX2021 Doctoral Consortium (34th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems), organized by University of Bologna and Mykolas Romeris University, 8 December 2021

Workshop and panel organizations

• Chair and moderator of CPDP 2023 conference panel “GDPR automation: Might the law (unintentionally) push towards automation?”, Brussels, 24-26 May 2023
• Co-chair of the 1st International Workshop on Imagining the AI Landscape After the AI Act (In conjunction with the First International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence) IAIL2022, Amsterdam 13 June 2022 (Winner of TAILOR Connectivity Fund for workshop costs)
• Co-organizer of the Workshop “Regulating emerging technologies: artificial intelligence and data governance – FA 03 Sub 01 2022”, EuroDIG, Trieste, 20-22 June 2022
• Co-organizer of the workshop "Human vs. algorithmic bias – is unbiased decision-making even a thing? – WS 07 2021 at EuroDIG, virtual event 28-30 June 2021

Mireille Hildebrandt

Keynotes and presentations

• Talk on online behavioural advertising, closing panel CPDP 2023, Brussels, 26 May 2023
• Presentation 'The Challenge of Legal Protection by Design', at Innovation Days Conference, organised by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg, 23 May 2023
• Prentation ‘A Typology of Legal Technologies: the Challenge of Legal Protection by Design’, fourth edition of the Women in Data Science (WiDS) 2023 Conference, Maastricht,  
• Keynote 'Ground-Truthing in the European Health Data Space', 16th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies BIOSTEC 2023, Lisbon, 16-18 February 2023
• Keynote, ‘A Typology of Legal Techs: A method to map/compare/assess’, IURIX conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, Saarland University, Saarbruecken, 15 December 2022
• Keynote 'Computational 'law' on edge', CRCL 2022 conference 'Computational 'law' on edge', Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels,  3 November 2022
• Presentation 'Typology of Legal Technologies', iHub, Radboud University, Nijmegen, 27 September 2022
• Presentation 'Profiling and the autonomous subject in private law', at the Conference on Regulating Personalisation at the Institute of Transformative Private Law', University of Amsterdam, 23 September 2022
• Presentation 'The New Methodenstreit in Machine Learning', International Conference 'Explaining Machines', University of Bielefeld, 23 June 2022
• Sabine Krolak-Schwerdt public lecture 'The Whisper Challenge - The Rule of Proxies', at the EuADS Summer School 'Data Science for Social Media, Luxembourg, 14 June 2022 
• Presentation at the '1st International Workshop on Imagining the AI Landscape after the AI Act', Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 13 June 2022 (online)
• Presentation 'Democracy and fundamental rights: Foundations of Artificial Intelligence Regulation', international seminar 'Challenges in Artificial Intelligence Regulation: international contribution to the Brazilian lawmaking process, Federal Senate of Brazil, 9 June 2022
• Presentation 'The issue of proxies and choice architecture', conference 'Opportunities and Risks of Digital Transformation in Finance and Beyond, Centre Responsible Digitality ZEVEDI', Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, 2 June 2022
• Keynote ‘Shock architecture and the optics of choice’, at the interdisciplinary symposium ‘Digital Materiality Matters’, ETH Zurich, 9 May 2022
• Presentation, 'The politics of ambiguity and the issue of proxies', talk at Latent Spaces, Zurich University of the Arts, 22 March 2022
• Keynote 'Rules as Code 2.0 Global Plenary', organized by the Australasian Society for Computers and Law and the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation, Australia, 14 March 2022
• Lecture 'GDPR and the proposed AI Act in the era of machine learning', Winter Elsa Law School, 21 February 2022
• Lecture 'Law and Computer Science', Winter School 'Algorithmic State, Market and Society', hosted by University of Florence, the European University Institute, the Bocconi University and the University of Oxford, 9 February 2022
• Lecture 'Legal Protection by Design for AI Systems', Flanders AI academy, seminar series 'Sense and Sensibility of AI', 26 January 2022
• Lecture ‘How to regulate AI?’, IViR Lecture Series, 26 November 2021
• Keynote ‘PPML and the AI Act’s fundamental rights assessment for ML systems’, Privacy Preserving Machine Learning Workshop at the ACM CCS 2021 Conference, 19 November 2021
• Keynote ‘The nature of rules inferred by way of Artificial Legal Intelligence, as compared to the nature of legal norms’, University of Florence, 29 October 2021
• Keynote ‘Written and coded ‘speech acts’ - Never the twain shall meet?’, 6th International conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing, 27 October 2021
• Tutorial ‘Law for computer scientists’, Advanced course on AI (ACAI), 13 October 2021 
• Keynote ‘AI Liability and the Ideologies of Traditional Law and Economics’, conference ‘Economic and legal challenges in the advent of smart products’, 5 October 2021
• Keynote ‘The AI Act: robust law for robust AI systems’, Doctoral Forum ‘Markets, Governance and European Law in the Algorithmic Era’, 16 July 2021
• Presentation ‘Computational human rights: oxymoron or potential?’, conference ‘Digital Rights 2.0: A Decade of Transformations for the Rule of Law’, 9 July 2021
• Plenary session ‘Digital principles – Defining the European way’, during ‘Digital 2021: Leading the Digital Decade’, 1 June 2021
• Webinar ‘AI regulation in the EU: What is the right mix?’, 31 May 2021
• Talk ‘Text-Driven Jurisdiction in Cyberspace’, WG Hart legal workshop on ‘New Perspectives on Jurisdiction and the Criminal Law’, 26 April 2021
• Online workshop ‘Courts as law-makers for the internet? Limits and potentials of norm entrepreneurship’, 22 April 2021
• Presentation ‘The framing powers of ML’, TOC4Fairness seminar, 31 March 2021
• Keynote ‘Is Democracy Computable?’, international conference ‘Democracy in a digital future’, 25 March 2021
• Presentation ‘Legal by Design? Legal Protection by Design?’, conference ‘Law + Computation: An Algorithm for the Rule of Law and Justice?’, 5 February 2021
• Workshop under the title 'Data-driven Law on Edge?' (online) 19 January 2021
• Tutorial ‘Legal Protection by Design for Robust AI’, international CS Lorentz Workshop at Leiden University on ‘Robust AI’, 11 January 2021Keynote at INTERSECT2020 edition (online), 15 October 2020
• Public seminar ‘Légiférer le risque’ (online), series Géopolitique du risque: Technologies et globalisation organised by the Chair Géopolitique du risque at École normale supérieure, 14 October 2020 
• Talk on Legal Protection by Design at Utrecht Data School, 29 September 2020
• Presentation ‘Legal Protection by Design or What?’, presentation on the legal implications of contact tracing apps based on the GAPPLE API, Digital Security group at iCIS, Radboud, 1 May 2020 ONLINE
• Presentation ‘AI and the GDPR’, EDPS Workshop: Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition: the EU Approach, Brussels, 13 February 2020
• Keynote ‘The Consequences of AI and Blockchain in the Law’, Bitbuerger Gespraeche, Mainz, 9 January 2020
• Paper presentation ‘Code-driven law: Scaling the Past and Freezing the Future’ at ‘Lex ex Machina a workshop of law’s incomputability’, hosted by Jesus College’s Intellectual Forum, Cambridge University, 13 December 2019 
• Keynote ‘Broken Promises of AI’s Modern Approach’, at the International Conference on Big data: Day-to-day Affairs, Human Rights, Democracy, co-organised by Law Faculty and Institute of Social Science, University of Lisbon, Lisbon 6 December 2019 
• Public Lecture ‘Distant reading of legal text and access to law’, BE Central, Lecture Series on AI, Brussels, 25 November 2019
• Organisation invitation-only COHUBICOL philosophers’ seminar text-driven normativity and the Rule of law, Radboud University, 18-19 November 2019
• Presentatie iCIS (lunchseminar) ‘Speaking CS to Law. On the COHUBICOL ERC AdG: Counting as a Human Being in the Era of Computational Law’ Nijmegen, 8 November 2019
• Keynote ‘Speaking Law to Computer Scientists and Other Folks’, ECSS, Rome, 29 October 2019 
• Keynote ‘EU Data Protection Law: An ally for scientific reproducibility’, the 27th ACM International Conference on Multimedia, Nice, 24 October 2019
• Keynote ‘Access to law in legal tech times’, Legal Tech Conference Flemish Bar Association, Brussels, 17 October 2019
• Keynote ‘Law and CS: Competing Legislators?’ at the Hamburg Interdisciplinary Summerschool, 18 September 2019 
• Opening keynote ‘Rude Awakenings from Behaviourist Dreams. Methodological Integrity and the GDPR’, ACM-Recsys, Copenhagen, 16 September 2019  
• Presentation ‘The common good of responsible innovation between LAW, CS and SSH’ at the internal interfaculty meeting at VUB, 22 August 2019
• Keynote ‘Access to Legal Information. Opening Pandora’s box’, European Forum of Official Gazettes, the Hague, 21 June 2019 
• Presentation on ‘What if privacy is incomputable?’ at the workshop ‘Beyond Differential Privacy’, Simons Institute of Theoretical Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley, 10 May 2019
• Presentation at Conference on ‘Explainable Artificial Intelligence: Can We Hold Machines Accountable?’, Silicon Flatirons, Boulder Colorado, USA 3 May 2019
• Presentation on ‘Legal Protection against the Automation of Law?’, at the conference on Legal Data Mining, Machine Learning and Visualization, HEC Paris, France, 21 March 2019

Interviews, podcasts

• Interview door Vuylsteke, Catherine. 2020. ‘Hoe Effectief Is Een Tracingapp? “We Weten Niet of Het Zal Werken”’. Site-Knack-NL. 2 June 2020
• Podcast Mireille Hildebrandt, a lawyer, philosopher and professor at Radboud Universiteit & Vrije Universiteit Brussels Explores The Functioning Of The Law And Ethics Within Cyberspace – The Human Show : Innovation through Social Science, Podcast 63, 16 July 2019
• Interview Prof. dr. mr. Mireille Hildebrandt, ‘Hardlopers zijn doodlopers’ (longread), website Nederlands Verbond van Verzekeraars 2019