eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies
Research
eLaw is a research institute of interdisciplinary scholars who explore issues at the intersection of law, technology and society.
eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies conducts multidisciplinary research at the intersection of law, ethics, society, and technology. Our team comprises legal scholars, social scientists, philosophers, and technology experts, enabling us to address complex research questions from diverse perspectives.
Areas of expertise
Our areas of expertise encompass the legal, ethical, and societal challenges posed by emerging technologies, from privacy and AI to cybersecurity, platform governance, and robotics, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of their impact on society.
Law, AI & Data Science
New digital technologies like AI and Data Science may bring along great benefits, but also some concerns. At eLaw, researchers investigate how technology regulation can foster innovation, for instance, through increasing legal certainty and public trust, while safeguarding rights of citizens and consumers. Our research scans emerging technologies and upcoming legislation to identify potential gaps or inadequacies in regulation, which are the basis for proposals to amend or adopt legislation and policy. Following value-sensitive design theories, ethical, legal, and societal aspects (ELSA) are identified and translated into design requirements for technology developers. Also included in this research are the risks and benefits of these new technologies for legal researchers and legal practitioners (LegalTech).
Regulation
- Bart Custers
- Eduard Fosch-Villaronga
- Valerie Frissen
- Henning Lahmann
- Gianclaudio Malgieri
- Carlotta Rigotti
- Bart Schermer
- Benjamyn I. Scott
Data ethics & AI ethics
Legal Tech
Privacy & Data Protection
All digital technologies use data. Often this includes personal data, sometimes highly sensitive data. This raises questions regarding which data can be used for which purposes. Within the EU, the focus lies on the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) and the fundamental right to privacy. At eLaw, we investigate how privacy and data protection works and should work in the digital age. Typically, topics like informed consent, control and autonomy, data subject rights, fairness, and transparency play an important role in this area of research. A special focus area is children’s data and privacy in relation to digital services and smart products.
Fundamental Rights & Digital Technologies
The digitisation of society may affect citizens’ fundamental rights. At eLaw, we consider the ways in which digital technologies shape and alter power relations between the state, private (tech) companies, and users both individually and collectively. These power imbalances leave individuals in a position of vulnerability – in particular if belonging to marginalised or otherwise underprivileged groups. A particular focus is the consideration of issues relating to gender, diversity, and intersectionality. Another research strand addresses protecting and respecting the rights and well-being of children in relation to online platforms and other digital services they use in their capacity as vulnerable consumers and users in EU digital law and consumer law. Furthermore we study the traditional communication rights, freedom of expression, information, and the media, and their changed role and significance in the digital age.
Gender, diversity & intersectionality
Children's rights & digital technologies
Vulnerability & power
Freedom of expression & information
Internet Governance & Platform Regulation
Internet Governance & Platform Regulation covers the overarching infrastructures of today’s digital economy and society. At eLaw, we consider the future of governing Internet superstructures in multilateral fora and address questions pertaining to digital markets and connectivity, such as telecommunications law. Another area is consumer protection law in the EU, addressing the manifold regulatory measures the EU has taken to shape digital markets to the benefit of individual users. Platform regulation focuses on how the activities of these central actors of the digital economy can be regulated to protect the individual as consumer and collective goods such as democracy or public health in the face of a surge of mis- and disinformation, online and technology-facilitated violence against women, or hate speech, without unduly curtailing fundamental rights such as freedom of expression as well as innovation.
Disinformation & content moderation
Platform governance
Digital markets & connectivity
Consumer protection
Cybercrime & cybersecurity
Digital technologies in criminal law have dual use: they can be used both by cybercriminals and law enforcement. At eLaw, we investigate new types of cybercrime, technologies in policing, and digital evidence. If cybercriminals use new technologies, this raises questions regarding criminal liability. New types of crime cannot always be addressed easily in existing criminal codes. If technology is used by law enforcement in criminal investigations, this raises questions regarding investigative powers. Any evidence resulting from digital investigations raises questions regarding admissibility and reliability of such evidence in criminal courts.
Law enforcement technologies
Digital investigations & e-evidence
Information security
Substantive cybercrime
Law & Robotics
This research area explores how law can respond to — and shape — the fast-evolving world of robotics and autonomous systems. From smart toys to exoskeletons, surgical systems, social companions, sex robots, drones, and sewer robots, we examine how these technologies operate across public and private, intimate spheres. The group is grounded in legal scholarship and interdisciplinary research, drawing on scientific and social scientific methods — including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches. A central aim is to support evidence-based policymaking through science for robot policy, with particular attention to the needs and rights of diverse and marginalized populations, including children, older adults, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQI+ communities. The work is inclusive, future-facing, and open to critical, creative, and out-of-the-box perspectives on human–robot interaction.
Human-machine interaction
Autonomous systems
Air mobility & cyber-physical systems
Integration with Leiden Law School Research Programs
Research at Leiden Law School is organized into eight different research programs in which researchers from different (legal) disciplines work together. Out of all of them, eLaw’s research aligns with the program Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a Pluralist World, which explores the dynamics of institutional and normative diversity regarding fundamental rights protection against the backdrop of the socio-cultural, political, and economic pluralism that characterizes today’s world, both globally and locally. We also collaborate with programs such as Coherent Private Law, Criminal Justice and Exploring the Frontiers of International Law.
Research-Driven Education
eLaw’s research directly informs education at all levels, ensuring students gain cutting-edge insights into the latest developments in law and technology. This integration is particularly evident in our Advanced Masters in Law and Digital Technologies—a one-year international program for legal professionals and ambitious graduates. The program offers in-depth knowledge from international and interdisciplinary perspectives, preparing students to navigate the complexities of the digital age. Find out more information about this exciting program on the study program website.