Algorithmic Rule By Law

The European Legal Studies Center welcomes Nathalie A. Smuha (KU Leuven Faculty of Law) for this lunchtime lecture.

Algorithmic Rule By Law:
How Algorithmic Regulation in the Public Sector Erodes the Rule of Law

A talk by

Nathalie A. Smuha

Monday, November 18, 2024
12:10pm to 1:10pm
WJW 103

Lunch will be served.

Please RSVP

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Public authorities are increasingly turning to algorithmic regulation, or the use of algorithmic systems to apply and enforce the law.Their adoption of algorithmic regulation tends to be motivated by the desire to improve public services and to better fulfil citizens’ rights,thus seemingly contributing to the rule of law. However, in practice, many use cases have demonstrated how reliance on algorithmic systems can undermine the law’s protective power and instead lead to rule by law. This risk is hence neither hypothetical, nor limited to authoritarian regimes. In Europe, the creation of the European Union's AI Act offered a beacon of hope to address this concern, yet EU legislators ultimately failed to take it into account in their regulation. In this talk, Nathalie Smuha therefore argues that there is asignificant misalignment between the EU's digital agenda and its rule of law agenda, which urgently needs to be addressed to counterthe threat of algorithmic rule by law.

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Nathalie A. Smuha is a legal scholar and philosopher at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law, where she examines legal and ethical questions around digital technologies and their impact on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. She is also Adjunct Professorat NYU School of Law and formerly held visiting positions at the University of Chicago (2023) and the University of Birmingham (2021).Prior to her academic turn, she practiced law as a member of the Brussels and the New York Bar and worked at the EuropeanCommission (DG Connect), where she coordinated the High-Level Expert Group on AI and contributed to Europe’s AI strategy. She isthe author of Algorithmic Rule By Law: How Algorithmic Regulation in the Public Sector Erodes the Rule of Law and the editor of TheCambridge Handbook of the Law, Ethics and Policy of Artificial Intelligence (both forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Please RSVP