LSTS Research Day 2026: Are Fundamental Rights Frameworks Fit for the Digital Age?

Fundamental rights law is increasingly operating in environments that differ significantly from those in which it was originally developed. We are witnessing massive shifts: from targeted state interventions to continuous, infrastructural surveillance; from human-centric adjudication to automated, probabilistic decision-making; and from clear public/private distinctions to complex ecosystems dominated by private firms. While the EU's "digital decade" has introduced a plethora of new regulations (such as the GDPR, the AI Act, and the Data Act), these frameworks often struggle to ensure proper enforcement and protect individuals.

This raises a systemic question: Are existing fundamental rights frameworks robust enough to evolve, or do they require fundamental reconfiguration?

To explore this crucial encounter, this research day brings together the interdisciplinary expertise of the Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) Research Group, exploring the intersections of law, technology, and society on the interpretation and protection of fundamental rights.

📅 Event Details

• Date: 22 June 2026

• Location: BSOG (Pleinlaan 5), rooms Rome/Lisbon on floor -1

• Registration: If you wish to participate, please contact sibel.top@vub.be

   

🕒 Programme

09:30 – 09:45 | Opening 

· Welcome by Gloria Gonzalez Fuster 

· Framing the scope of the research day: Are existing fundamental rights frameworks (GDPR, human rights law, EU regulation) still adequate in the digital age? By Simone Casiraghi 

09:45 – 10:30 | REGROUP presentation 

· Expanding your impact: Opportunities for external communication & outreach 

10:30 – 11:00 | Opening keynote by Sofie Royer 

· Prosecuting communication service providers as crime facilitators: Fundamental rights constraints 

11:00 – 11:30 | Coffee break 

11:30 – 12:15 | New and Ongoing FRCL Research 

· Format: All FRCL members present briefly (10’ each) their research topic and how it relates to fundamental rights in the digital age 

· Moderator: Sibel Top 

12 :15 – 13:15 | Lunch Break 

13:15 – 14:00 | Vice Rectorate RESEARCH – Department Research Information & Data Management Office (RIDO) presentation 

· Training on VABB-SHW database 

14:00 – 15:30 | First panel with presentations (15’' presentation + 5’ Q&A) 

• “Intervenability and the Shallow Structuring of Data Governance in EU Data Spaces” by Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon, Andrés Chomczyk Penedo, Pablo Trigo Kramcsak and Bárbara da Rosa Lazzarotto 
• “Dynamic nature of pseudonymisation and the risk-based approach as a reinforcement of fundamental rights” by Jakub Míšek. 
• “The Right to Opacity: Reconceptualising the Age-Old Right to Be Let Alone to Adequately Protect Citizens against Emotional Surveillance” by Georgios Bouchagiar 
• “Testing Fundamental Rights Frameworks Through Neurotechnologies” by Jacopo Piemonte 

15:30 – 15:45 | Coffee break 

15:45 – 16:45 | Promode project Workshop organized by Gianmarco Gori, Andreas Kanakakis, Juraj Sajfert 

· Developing, procuring and deploying AI in Law Enforcement: open challenges across data protection, fundamental rights and the AI Act 

16:45 – 17:30 | Closing keynote by Hielke Hijmans 

· A personal vision on Fundamental Rights Law in the Digital Age 

17:30 | Closing remarks followed by Drinks at Pilar