On on 29 January 2024, it was announced that Aylin Alexa Zainea has won the Thesis Award from the Dutch Data Protection Authority. She wrote her thesis for the Advanced Master programme on Law and Digital Technologies hosted by eLaw, Center for Law and Digital Technologies. Her thesis entitled ‘Automated…

With the conference circuit slowly reopening after Covid forced almost all academic interactions online, thousands of conference attendees descended on Brussels for Europe’s largest technology conference. eLaw’s annual sponsorship of one of the many CPDP conference panels brought a diverse range of…

Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies at eLaw, and Mohammed Raiz Shaffique, researcher and PhD candidate at eLaw, have published a self-assessment tool on age assurance for the European Commission.

Staff from eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies contributed to the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT), held in Athens from 25 to 27 June 2025. The ACM FAccT conference is one of the world’s leading venues for interdisciplinary research on responsible and ethical…

Taner Kuru, an eLaw alumnus, was awarded the prestigious European Data Protection Law Review ‘Young Scholar Award’ for his paper on the shortcomings in the GDPR for the regulation of genetic testing at the prestigious Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference (CPDP).

In July and August 2017, Magdalena Jozwiak, researcher at the eLaw department, is going to teach the course on ‘Privacy and surveillance in an information age: comparative law perspectives’ at the Kuala Lumpur campus of the Australian Monash University, within the framework of the Monash Law Malaysia…

Eduard Fosch-Villaronga and Bart Custers from eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies wrote an article on Fair Medicine and AI highlighting that AI for biomedical research and healthcare should be beneficent and equitable for everyone.

Following a highly successful first edition, we are delighted to announce the second Leiden eLaw Summer School on ‘Regulating AI in the EU Digital Market’ taking place from 23 to 27 June 2025, both in person in Leiden and online.

Dr Eduard Fosch-Villaronga, Assistant Professor at eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies, and 8 partners have been awarded the project 'BIAS: Mitigating Diversity Biases in the Labour Market', a large €4.7M Horizon Europe grant.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has recently awarded a significant grant of 863,000 euros to the project proposal 'RESOCIAL' led by Dr Gianclaudio Malgieri, Associate Professor at eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies. This grant is part of the 'NWA Synergy Theme: Vulnerability and Resilience…

Eduard Fosch Villaronga, Assistant Professor at eLaw, co-organised together with Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux, Christoph Lutz, Anton Fedesov, and Anto Čartolovni the GoodBrother International Conference on Privacy-friendly and Trustworthy Technology for Society on 28 June 2022 in Zagreb, Croatia.

On 20 November 2025, eLaw hosted the second capacity-building session of the BIAS project, coinciding with the city’s first snowfall of the year. The training brought together HR practitioners, scholars, consultants, and policymakers to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using AI systems in…

On 13 March 2024, Carlotta Rigotti, postdoc researcher at eLaw, and Alexandre Puttick, postdoc researcher at Bern University of Applied Sciences, remotely presented the working paper 'Towards mitigating diversity bias of AI in recruitment and selection via value sensitive design' at the ACM Symposium…

On 26 September 2023, Carlotta Rigotti was invited to give a talk on the regulatory impact of the AI Act on AI applications for recruitment and selection, during the AI Lund Fika-to-Fika Workshop on Regulating High Risk AI in the EU.

Carlotta Rigotti and Dr Eduard Fosch-Villaronga from Leiden University presented the Horizon Europe BIAS project and its preliminary findings on fairness and diversity biases of AI applications in the labour market during the 'Algorithms for Her?' conference.

On 9 October 2023, Carlotta Rigotti and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga participated in the BIAS webinar on citizen science and AI technologies, namely the first awareness-raising activity of the Horizon Europe BIAS project. They discussed online citizens’ engagement on tackling gender and intersectional biases…

Carlotta Rigotti and Eduard Fosch-Villaronga launch a call for workshop papers on fairness and AI in the labour market at the 16th JSAI International Symposia on AI as part of the Horizon Europe BIAS project.

As part of the LIAISON Research Project, Eduard Fosch-Villaronga and Hadassah Drukarch organised a workshop at the European Robotics Forum (ERF 2021) to engage the broader community in the projects’ goal of liaising robot development and policymaking.

Jurist Gineke Wiggers wants to predict the expected impact of legal articles. Carel Stolker, Rector of the University and, like Wiggers, a legal specialist, is enthusiastic about the research. ‘A big data project like this will help us establish the effect of our work on society.’

Every year, eLaw organizes various conferences, symposia, workshops, panels and other events.

Conference

eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies offers educational programs at Pre-University, Bachelor, Master’s, Advanced Master’s, and postgraduate level in the field of law, technology, and society.

Conference

In this research project, the protection of personal data is compared in eight EU member states: France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands. The comparison of the countries is focused on government policies for the protection of personal data, the applicable laws and…

The project will investigate the use of Artificial Intelligence in the labour market, and how biases in hiring and promoting processes based on personal characteristics are potentially reproduced with AI-based systems.

This project aims to link robot development and policymaking to reduce the complexity in robot legal compliance in the context of COVR.

eLaw- Center for Law and Digital Technologies is based in the Kamerlingh Onnes Building, Steenschuur 25, 2311 ES Leiden.

eLaw at Leiden University leads Europe in exploring the intersection of law and digital technologies.

Do you have any questions about the minor Artificial Intelligence and Society? Please contact us!

The Hans Franken Lecture honors the legacy of Prof. Dr. Mr. Hans Franken, a founding figure of eLaw in 1985.

We welcome visiting scholars whose research aligns with our diverse areas of expertise.

eLaw is a research institute of interdisciplinary scholars who explore issues at the intersection of law, technology and society.

Combining insights from regulation theory, law and computer science, this book explores policy and digital enforcement solutions that could strengthen EU consumer protection against dark patterns – a policy priority in recent years and the near future. The book illustrates why more technology-specific…

Research into the development of privacy-friendly care games for children.

The Netherlands generally performs above average in the protection of personal data, according to research carried out at Leiden University. Germany is the leading country, while countries such as Italy and Romania are lagging behind.

Cyber agent technology and intelligence agencies is a project that is commissioned by Tracks Inspector, a Dutch company that develops innovative software.

What legislative and regulatory questions arise when children, adolescents or elderly people use the Internet?

What issues arise in the changing landscape of privacy, identity and data protection?

In what ways do matters of cybersecurity affect the relationship between governments and citizens, have a bearing on (fundamental) rights and civil liberties, and alter the role and responsibilities of governments?

How can innovation help or hinder public procurement processes?

This book presents a new framework for regulating human-like machines designed for emotional and sexual engagement, often powered by AI.

Eduard Fosch-Villaronga and Hadassah Drukarch from eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies, recently published the book ‘AI for Healthcare Robotics’, published by CRC Press from Taylor and Francis Group in their AI for Everything Series.

Latest technological developments in data mining and profiling.

D1.2 reports on the findings of an analysis of framework conditions relevant in the context of the data economy from a legal, a socio-economic and a technological perspective. The analysis is a key foundation for the creation of an initial, heuristic model of the European data economy. The deliverable…

D2.2 comprises the in-depth legal analysis of the initial heuristic model, focused on addressing, in more detail, the main legal concerns for data reusers in the European data economy. This detailed analysis of the legal propositions presented in D2.1 is supplemented by an analysis of the technological,…

D1.3 describes a set of five case studies relevant in the context of the EuDEco project. Case studies are considered relevant if they are initiatives focusing on the promotion of big data and data reuse or pilots facilitating data reuse in one form or the other. The case studies were expected to allow…

How does the development of digital technologies impact society, and law/regulation within that society?