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Future Law: Challenges for Law, Technology and Culture

Law and ComputingConversations with the Work of Mireille Hildebrandt

Edited by Emilie van den Hoven, Katja de Vries, Gianmarco Gori and Serge Gutwirth

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£120.00

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Published 31 January 2027

About this book

Continues the examination of the (in)computabilities of life and law as inspired by the work of Mireille Hildebrandt

  • Brings together many authors from various disciplines such as computer science, law, (legal) philosophy and social sciences in one volume
  • Each chapter focuses on a novel and timely research question on important digital issues, prompted by Hildebrandt’s oeuvre and approach
  • The volume contains many short, provocative and concise chapters by world-class and leading scholars from many different fields

In a world that is rapidly becoming ever-more computable and computed, Professor Mireille Hildebrandt has dedicated the latter part of her prolific career to examining the (in)computabilities of life and the law. In this edited volume, the conversation on the compatibility of the digital and the legal continues.

The book brings together eminent scholars from around the world who have been inspired by Hildebrandt’s work, both before and after its 'computational turn'. In each chapter, the authors reflect on novel and important questions, prompted by her academic scholarship and approach. Ranging from contributions on the regulation of Generative AI, automated cars, reflections on the state of AI ethics and data protection law, to the nature and importance of human judgement and the incomputability of fundamental rights, the subjects under discussion in this volume need our urgent attention.

Rooted firmly in her intellectual and academic history in criminal law, environmental law and philosophy, Mireille Hildebrandt has led the charge in finding out what it means to count as a human being in the era of computational 'law'. Her work serves as a poignant reminder that the fight for legal protection and the rule of law continues in the digital age.

Table of contents

List of Contributors

1. Introduction. The (In-)Computabilities of Life and Law

Section I. Rule of Law and Human Rights at the Core of Criminal Law and Punishment.
2. Anthony Duff - Are Regulatory Offences Really Crimes?

Section II. The (re-)qualification of the human and the artificial in the algorithmic era: agency, identity and legal personhood.
3. Esther Keymolen - Helmuth Plessner and the excentric thinking of Mireille Hildebrandt.
4. Paul de Hert and Diana Mocanu - Beyond temporization: Hildebrandt’s mindful approach to the legal status of mindless artificial agents
5. Jeanne Gaakeer - Once upon a time in Tempe, Arizona.
6. Lorenzo Magnani - Are We Really Protecting People from the Overwhelming Power of the Internet Giants or Are We Just Promoting “Ethics Washing” and “Law Washing”?

Section III. Data protection and beyond.
7. Gloria González Fuster - Data trouble.
8. Gianclaudio Malgieri - Critical Empathy towards Vulnerability-Sensitive AI Regulation.
9. Laura Drechsler - Archiving the European citizen.
10. Geneviève Vanderstichele - Reflections on the nature of data and data rights

Section IV. Preserving incomputability and contestability in design
11. Sylvie Delacroix - A Celebration of the Incomputable
12. Schafer Burkhard - Demolition women: Mireille Hildebrandt and the challenge of ubiquitous law.

Section V. Cross-Disciplinarity in the works of Mireille Hildebrandt
13. Fleur Johns - Boundary Riding with Mireille Hildebrandt
14. Jorrit Smit - Qualculating Science’s Value to Society: What’s in a proxy?
15. Simone Casiraghi - A reflection on some ethical underpinnings of institutionalized AI ethics.
16. Jean Paul Van Bendegem - Incomputability and Unexplainability.
17. Elena Esposito - Explication or Meta-Communication. About the Contestability of Algorithmic Decisions
18. Jaap-Henk Hoepman - The Laws of Nature Doctrine: Reappraising Friction in the Digital World

Section VI. Legal Protection by Design
19. Niels van Dijk - Fundamental Rights and Digital Risks to Constitutional Systems
20. Tatiana Duarte – ‘Risk to Rights’ Seen Through Legal Protection by Design
21. Denis Merigoux and Liane Huttner - Designing for Legal Protection: The Case of Catala.
22. Sarah B. Lawsky - Ambiguity, Inputs, and the Rule of Law.
23. Bart Jacobs and Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius - Endorsements as a trust mechanism in the context of AI.

Section VII. Continuing the Conversation: The impact of Mireille Hildebrandt’s work beyond the here and now.
24. Roger Brownsword - For Mireille: A Letter from Leiden.
25. Kieron O’Hara - Continuing the Conversation: Strategies for Regulating Generative Artificial Intelligence.
26. Julie Cohen - Ode to a Hedgehog: In Appreciation of Mireille Hildebrandt.
27. Frank Pasquale - Law’s Resonance: Hildebrandt as Hermeneutical Thinker.

About the contributors

Emilie van den Hoven

Emilie van den Hoven is a PhD Candidate and affiliate researcher at the Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

Katja de Vries

Katja de Vries is Senior Lecturer in Public Law at Uppsala University.

Gianmarco Gori

Gianmarco Gori is Guest Professor in Legal Professionals in the Digital Age and Postdoctoral researcher at the Law, Science, Technology and Society Research Group (LSTS), Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Serge Gutwirth

Serge Gutwirth is Emeritus Professor of Human Rights, Comparative Law, Legal Theory and Methodology at the Law, Science, Technology & Society Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

More in this series

See the series →

Future Law

Lilian Edwards, Burkhard Schafer and Edina Harbinja (eds)

£33.99