European Journal of Law and Technology

Fundamental Rights Impact Assessments in the EU’s AI Act: A teleological and contextual analysis of the obligations of deployers

2025-09-03T08:48:56+00:00

This article examines the obligation for public-sector deployers to conduct Fundamental Rights Impact Assessments (FRIAs) under Article 27 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). The article argues that the FRIA obligation functions as a minimum harmonisation standard, granting Member State authorities discretion to go beyond the AI Act's baseline and conduct more rigorous fundamental rights scrutiny prior to deployment. In contrast, the AI Act's obligations on providers of high-risk AI systems are fully harmonised, primarily structured around internal market objectives and designed to facilitate the free circulation of AI technologies across the EU. By drawing a distinction between these two regulatory logics, the article demonstrates that decisions by public authorities not to deploy AI, or to conduct broader or deeper FRIA impact assessments than required by Article 27, fall outside the scope of EU law. Drawing a parallel with free movement of goods caselaw, the article argues that such decisions are akin to ‘selling arrangements’. Consequently, they are not subject to challenge under internal market or fundamental rights provisions of EU law by affected providers. The article concludes that the FRIA mechanism offers Member States a critical lever to secure fundamental rights and foster human-centric and trustworthy AI.

Social Media Addiction, Behaviourism, and the Limits of the Digital Services Act

2025-04-30T13:29:58+00:00

This paper examines the Digital Services Act’s behaviourist framing of ‘platform addiction’ and its reliance on stimulus–response assumptions about interface design. It argues that this model is both internally inconsistent and causally misattributed, privileging autoplay, infinite scroll, and notifications while downplaying intrapersonal, psychosocial, and structural drivers of compulsive use. To address this issue, it contends that proportionate design governance, e.g., the European Parliament’s proposed ‘right not to be disturbed’ should be paired with upstream measures: early identification and evidence-based care in education settings, embedded mental-health counselling with clear crisis pathways, community and anti-loneliness programmes, and policies that reduce precarity. This dual approach both blunts engagement features and reduces the conditions that amplify risk, making problematic, compulsive use less likely.

Advancing Legal Education: Integrating Space Law into Postgraduate Curricula in International Governance and Commercial Law

2025-07-29T08:16:22+00:00

Space law, in its current form, is still largely rooted in Cold War-era assumptions, and yet the realities of space activity today could hardly be more different. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty remains the primary legal scaffold, but its focus on state actors leaves considerable ambiguity where commercial and non-state activities are concerned. That gap has become increasingly problematic as private ventures, from small satellite constellations to lunar mining initiatives, have reshaped the landscape. This paper makes the case for integrating space law as a distinct and serious component of postgraduate legal curricula, particularly in courses concerned with international governance and commercial regulation. Without this shift, it is difficult to see how future legal practitioners will be prepared to respond to the growing regulatory complexities in this field. Through examining recent developments and legal trends, this paper highlights why and how legal education should adapt, while exploring the institutional and pedagogical challenges such integration might raise.

Ryan Calo, Law and Technology: A Methodical Approach (OUP 2025)

2025-10-31T19:18:04+00:00

Regulation vs Innovation: the Challenges of Simplifying EU Digital Law

2025-12-12T16:45:00+00:00