Algorithmic Rule By Law: How Algorithmic Regulation in the Public Sector Erodes the Rule of Law

  • Book Session
  • CPDP Book Club
  • Cinema
  • Wednesday 21.05 — 14:15 - 15:30

With the promise of greater efficiency and effectiveness, public authorities have increasingly turned to algorithmic systems to regulate and govern society. In Algorithmic Rule By Law, Nathalie Smuha examines this reliance on algorithmic regulation and shows how it can erode the rule of law. Drawing on extensive research and examples, Smuha argues that outsourcing important administrative decisions to algorithmic systems undermines core principles of democracy. Smuha further demonstrates that this risk is far from hypothetical or one that can be confined to authoritarian regimes, as many of her examples are drawn from public authorities in liberal democracies that are already making use of algorithmic regulation. Focusing on the European Union, Smuha argues that the EU's digital agenda is misaligned with its aim to protect the rule of law. Novel and timely, this book should be read by anyone interested in the intersection of law, technology and government.

Nathalie Smuha

KU Leuven Faculty of Law - Belgium

Nathalie A. Smuha is a legal scholar and philosopher at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law and Criminology, where she examines legal and ethical questions around digital technologies and their impact on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. She is the author of Algorithmic Rule By Law: How Algorithmic Regulation in the Public Sector Erodes the Rule of Law and the editor of The Cambridge Handbook of the Law, Ethics and Policy of Artificial Intelligence (both with Cambridge University Press, 2025). She has taken up Adjunct Professorships at NYU School of Law and Columbia Law School, and she also held visiting positions at Oxford University, the University of Chicago and the University of Birmingham. Prior to her academic turn, she practiced law as a member of the Brussels and the New York Bar and worked at the European Commission (DG Connect), where she coordinated the High-Level Expert Group on AI and contributed to Europe’s AI strategy. She holds BA and MA degrees in both law and philosophy from KU Leuven, a PhD in law from KU Leuven, and an LL.M. from the University of Chicago.

Aurelia Tamo-Larrieux

University of Lausanne - Switzerland

Aurelia Tamò-Larrieux is an Associate Professor at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), Faculty of Law, heading the team of Digital and Computational Law and leading the Legal Design & Code Lab. She is also a lecturer at EPFL, teaching Law and Computation to engineers and computer scientists.

Konrad Kollnig

Maastricht University - Netherlands

Konrad Kollnig is assistant professor at the Law & Tech Lab of Maastricht University’s Law Faculty. He particularly focuses on the future of AI regulation (in leading the RegTech4AI project with 5 researchers), holding online platforms to account (in the co-leading the CoCoDa project across the UK, Switzerland and the EU) and building a more resilient digital infrastructure (in his latest book).