Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - DynamInt

DynamInt Doctoral Forum on „Markets, Governance and European Law in the Algorithmic Era”


 

dynamint-doctoral-forum-2021.text.image1On 15th and 16th July 2021 the first DynamInt Doctoral Forum took place at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. It was conducted in a hybrid format and organised in cooperation with the European Law School (ELS) Summer School. PhD students from all over Europe, members of the DynamInt Research Group and professors attended the two-day workshop which featured keynote speeches and panel discussions, in which PhD students presented their research and debated current implications and the regulation of the algorithmic era in the context of the European Union. Different dimensions of the legal challenge posed by the use of algorithms in today’s digital world for law-makers and the European project were addressed by this Doctoral Forum.

In the first keynote speech on 15th of July, Kilian Gross (Head of the Unit “Artificial Intelligence Policy Development and Coordination” within the European Commission) presented the Commission’s new proposal for harmonised regulation of AI.

The topics of the following three panel sessions, commented on by DynamInt Postdocs Dr. Ferenc Szilágyi and Dr. Ruth Weber, were regulatory issues regarding AI, its challenges for the right to equality and the guarantee of fundamental freedoms under the data protection regime of the EU. After the PhD students‘ panel presentations and the Postdocs‘ comments, the participants had the opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas on these issues.

The topics of the following three panel sessions, commented on by DynamInt Postdocs Dr. Ferenc Szilágyi and Dr. Ruth Weber, were regulatory issues regarding AI, its challenges for the right to equality and the guarantee of fundamental freedoms under the data protection regime of the EU. After the PhD students‘ panel presentations and the Postdocs‘ comments, the participants had the opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas on these issues.

The input speeches by Prof. Mireille Hildebrandt (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) und Prof. Philipp Hacker (European New School of Digital Studies) on the 16th of July provided further insight on the Commission’s legislative proposal on AI and the wider regulatory framework. The fourth panel, moderated by Dr. Sophie Burchardi, and the following open discussion were concerned with questions around consumer and user protection, for example liability rules and ‘out of court’-dispute settlement mechanisms. In the last input speech, Matthias Spielkamp (Co-founder of AlgorithmWatch) presented a practical approach on the governance of automated decision-making processes.

Following the programme, the participants of the Doctoral Forum got the chance to further engage in conversations at receptions held by the law firm Blomstein and the Centre Français.

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For more information see also the invitation to the Doctoral Forum, the call for presentations and the programme.