ABOUT EVENT

14 February 2026 | Faculty of Law, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Romania

“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.” — Christian Lous Lange

The 9th edition of the International Conference “Legal Perspectives on the Internet” — organized in partnership with the University of Poitiers, Faculty of Law and as an EC2U academic event — brings together scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and technologists to engage in a critical discussion on the theme “Governing the Ungovernable?”

In an era of borderless platforms, autonomous systems, and accelerating technological change, traditional legal frameworks are being stretched to their limits.

To understand and address these challenges, the conference adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, welcoming contributions from law, technology, political science, economics, philosophy, psychology, media and communication, ethics, and design.

Together, we aim to interrogate the evolving interplay between law, code, power, and society, and reflect on whether, and how, governance systems can respond to technologies that increasingly shape, and sometimes escape, human control.

Conference Objectives

• To examine the limitations and potential of legal regulation in digital and AI-driven environments;
• To explore new interdisciplinary models of governance, accountability, and technological design;
• To connect academics, legal professionals, and innovators in dialogue on the future of law in a post-digital world.

Suggested Topics and Panels:

1. Law and Digital Governance

• Challenges of governing borderless digital spaces
• Platform regulation and the evolution of digital constitutionalism
• Transnational enforcement and private ordering in cyberspace
• Regulating algorithms, data flows, and automated decision-making

2. AI, Autonomy, and Accountability

• Legal and ethical dimensions of AI governance
• Algorithmic bias, discrimination, and transparency obligations
• Liability in autonomous systems and generative AI
• Dark patterns, manipulative design, and human autonomy

3. Global and Comparative Perspectives

• The EU model of digital regulation (DSA, DMA, AI Act) and its global influence
• Comparative governance models: U.S., China, India, Global South
• Digital sovereignty and extraterritorial application of law
• The role of international organizations and soft law in digital governance

4. Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cutting Approaches

• Psychological and behavioral insights into digital regulation
• Ethical frameworks and value-based design of technologies
• Law, economics, and innovation: balancing growth and responsibility
• Political power, surveillance, and digital democracy

5. Technology and Private Law

• Contract formation, consent, and liability in digital environments
• Smart contracts, blockchain transactions, and evidentiary challenges
• Data as an object of property and contractual rights
• Consumer protection, unfair terms, and dark patterns in private relationships
• The transformation of tort and civil liability in AI-driven contexts
• Revisiting the boundaries between private autonomy and technological determinism

6. Frontiers of Legal Imagination

• Is “law” enough to govern the algorithmic society?
• Towards new normative architectures: law, code, and design
• Post-legal governance and the rise of technical norms
• The limits of legal reasoning in the age of AI

 Submission Guidelines

• Abstracts: up to 300 words, including 5 keywords
• Deadline for submission: 15 January 2026
• Notification of acceptance: 25 January 2026
• Language: English

Registration form for authors/presenters: https://forms.office.com/e/cqm4CSb6u8

Contact: copeji@uaic.ro

Registration form for participants (attendance only, without presenting a paper): https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/QXWbVK1y7c

Participation Fee

The participation fee is 55 EUR (for both authors/presenters and participants without a paper).

If you have been granted an exemption from paying the participation fee, please indicate the reason in the registration form and upload the corresponding proof.

Details regarding the payment will be communicated after you receive the acceptance email for your proposed title or paper (from email address – copeji@uaic.ro). If you are registering as a participant without a paper, you will receive the payment instructions by email after completing the registration form (please allow a few more working days for processing).

Kindly note that receiving an acceptance email does not secure participation. Attendance is confirmed only upon payment of the participation fee, unless you have been expressly exempted. Participants who do not complete the payment within the indicated timeframe will not be able to attend the conference.

SPEAKERS

[TO BE CONFIRMED]

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

[TO BE PUBLISHED]

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

[TO BE PUBLISHED]