From AI regulation to digital rights and algorithmic trust, the fourth IE Lawtomation Days gathered 120 speakers and 200 participants from 25 countries — turning Madrid into the epicentre of global debate on law and technology.
The fourth edition of the “IE Lawtomation Days” has just concluded, confirming once again its place as the flagship international gathering at the intersection of law and technology. With 120 speakers, 200 participants, 23 parallel panels, 19 chairs and 80 institutions from 25 countries across 4 continents, this year’s edition captured the breadth and depth of debates on artificial intelligence (AI), regulation and law.
The unifying theme was trust—and its opposite, distrust. Over two intense days, we interrogated trust in algorithms, data, professions and institutions. The conversation circled back to a central question: Can law alone sustain trust in AI-driven societies, or must ethics, technical safeguards and corporate responsibility shoulder part of the task?
The keynote speeches framed these questions powerfully. Michèle Finck (University of Tübingen) argued that the AI Act should be understood as deregulation, a constitutional pivot in Europe’s approach to AI. Veena Dubal (UC Irvine School of Law) offered a comparative perspective on data rights at work, exposing how algorithmic management reshapes workplace relations. On the second day, Mathias Siems (European University Institute) mapped the opportunities and risks of deploying AI systems in legal research, while Ignacio Cofone (University of Oxford) made the provocative case that AI demands a fundamental rebuilding of data protection law as we know it. Dean Soledad Atienza and Vice Dean Fernando Pastor opened the event with their remarks.
This year also marked the launch of the Jean Monnet Chair on EU Digital Private Law, led by Francisco de Elizalde, which will further strengthen and expand the activities of the Centre. As he put it, “the Chair addresses the institutionalisation of private law with the EU digital regulations. Private law is transformed both in substance and procedure to address the specialities of power in the digital environment. The Chair explores the unfolding legal scenario with research, teaching and dissemination activities. It becomes a new line of research of the IE Lawtomation Centre, which has profited from the cross-sectorial approach to law and technology of the IE Lawtomation Days. Despite its relatively young age, IE Lawtomation has already become a tradition, a stop in the international calendar for law and technology. It has served as a springboard to this and many other projects among participants.”
As Antonio Aloisi emphasized in his closing words, “Lawtomation is a community, a permanent centre of gravity, where ideas meet, collide and spark new energy. We cannot emphasize enough how transformative each panel was, bringing together ongoing research with stimulating discussion. Pragmatism and critical approaches dominated our panels and corridors. The aim for the future is to push forward solutions that genuinely serve progress and prosperity, and to insist that law can be an engine of positive transformation.”
The intellectual quality, collegial spirit and global diversity on display this year reaffirmed what many already know: Lawtomation is the place to go for anyone seeking to understand how technology reshapes legal frameworks, and how law, in turn, can help shape a digital future that remains accountable, empowering and trustworthy.
This is a collective success, whose merits are shared. None of this would have been possible without the tireless work of our IE Law School staff (Carla Viezma, Isabel Garces and Sara Junquera, among others) and faculty members, the dedication of 64 student volunteers and the support of our partners: the International Labour Organization, the European Law Institute (ELI) and The Digital Constitutionalist (DigiCon), with whom we are preparing our first collective volume. We are also grateful for the backing of the research project PID2023-149184OB-C43, granted by MCIU / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033 and the FSE+, which has helped sustain the Lawtomation initiative.
