European Journal of Law and Technology

Transparent, Rapid and Contextualised? Comparing Content Moderation Requirements in Emerging EU Regulation

Therese Enarsson — 2025-09-30

The European Union is making unprecedented efforts to address illegal and harmful online content through regulation, particularly targeting very large online platforms (VLOPs). This article examines how recent EU instruments – starting with the Digital Services Act (DSA) – assign responsibility for efficient and rapid content moderation while allowing for contextualised decision-making. This has implications for both automated and human moderation. The analysis shows that advanced moderation is effectively mandated, requiring a mix of automation and human oversight, though the explicit need for human contextual input is rarely stated. Instead, VLOPs are primarily tasked with ensuring transparency in moderation processes and decisions. As a result, responsibility is partly shifted to users, who must take certain actions, such as requesting human review of automated decisions. The article also highlights the complex interaction between the DSA and other specialised regulations and self-regulatory measures on hate speech, terrorism-related content and disinformation – creating a dense regulatory landscape that warrants further study.

Delivering on the Promise of the Fundamental Rights Impact Assessments in the EU AI Act: Intersectionality and Vulnerability

Marta Lasek-Markey — 2025-09-30

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the adequacy of the fundamental rights impact assessment (FRIA) model as a means of safeguarding human rights in the context of high-risk systems in the EU AI Act. With Article 27 AI Act as the baseline context we analyse the ‘genre’ of impact assessments. The fundamental rights referenced in the AI Act are linked to relevant provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR). It is argued that, in addition to the 23 rights identified by the AI Act, the use of AI has the potential to impact all substantive CFR rights, albeit not to an equal measure. Drawing on this analysis the paper highlights limitations in the conceptualisation of FRIAs that will compromise their capacity to identify and mitigate the fundamental rights impacts. As issues pertaining to direct horizontal effect might emerge in litigation, the paper concludes by arguing that meaningful FRIAs will preferably require recourse to frameworks unconventional in EU law, such as intersectionality and the vulnerable subject theory.

Neurorights in BCI Applications: a Private Law Perspective

Lucilla Gatt — 2025-09-30

This paper explores brain–computer interface (BCI) applications under a private law perspective with the aim of demonstrating how the legal issues deriving from the use of these technologies can be dealt with through the interpretation of the existing regulatory framework at the supranational and national levels (neurorights and fundamental freedoms), in the latter case, making reference to Italian law. We adopt a right-based approach not only to lay the legal foundations for a safe, reliable and trustworthy technology, but also to evaluate its impact on human decisions and juridical acts, and to assess how much of the human will remains in these hypotheses. The paper includes three case studies related to vulnerabilities or disabilities of current and prospective BCI users, with a particular focus on the Italian legal system.

Editorial to the Special Section: Digital Justice through AI in Family (Patrimonial) Law, and Beyond

Nishat Hyder-Rahman — 2025-09-30

This EJLT Special Section spotlights one domain of law – namely, family (patrimonial) law – where technology, digitalisation and the use of AI can have a transformative impact. Although the focus is on family (patrimonial) law, the discussion herein often extends beyond this domain to the field of law as a whole. This Special Section is inspired by three EU-projects on Conflict Resolution with Equitative Algorithms (CREA 2017–2019, CREA2 2022–24 and CREA3 2024–2026) that advance developments in algorithmic asset division between divorcing couples or beneficiaries of an inheritance in the European context. These three CREA projects are inter-European, interdisciplinary consortium projects, involving scholars and practitioners from law, policy, engineering and software development. This interdisciplinary approach enables a prismatic view on the topic of division of assets, the development of tools in this field and the issues at hand.

Enhancing Access to Justice via LLMs in the Field of Asset Division: CREA2 and the Digital Journey

Marco Giacalone — 2025-09-30

The ongoing digitalisation of both out-of-court and court services undoubtedlyenhances justice by increasing speed, lowering costs and time, providing informationand removing physical barriers to accessing legal services and enforcing rights. We contend that advances in large language models (LLMs) will further enhance access to justice by providing bespoke, data-driven services to citizens. In this paper, we concretise this claim by demonstrating how generative AI can be integrated into dispute resolution services through the example of our own project, CREA2, an online platform and digital tool for asset division between divorcing couples or beneficiaries of an inheritance. CREA2 was completed in June 2024, and in this paper we reflect on the finished project whilst looking ahead to the follow-up CREA3 project, which began in November 2024. This paper, moreover, seeks to address not only why LLMs are being implemented in dispute resolution, but also how. The implementation and evaluation of LLMs in legal practice is an inherently interdisciplinary endeavour. Therefore, here, drawing on both legal and technical expertise, we seek to situate the CREA project, and broader phenomena of AI-driven legal tools, within both the legal and technical discourses.

Recognition of Cross-Border Remote Marriages and Divorces in the Digital Age

Naivi Chikoc Barreda — 2025-09-30

This paper discusses the impact of digitalisation on the recognition of international marriages and divorces concluded online before a remote authority. The widespread solution for the formal validity of marriages based on the application of the lex loci celebrationis is now facing the division of the place of celebration between the state where the authority is located and the state(s) from which the parties appear remotely. With regard to divorces in the era of dejudicialisation and digitisation, new problems arise when it comes to assessing their authentic nature and the notary’s international competence. This paper explores different legal approaches to these challenges from a comparative perspective and proposes avenues to enhance the cross-border circulation of family status resulting from e-solemnisation of marriages and e-notarisation of divorces.

Addressing the Needs of Victims: the Design of a Multi-Role AI-Driven Application for Victims of Crime Access to Justice

Giampiero Lupo — 2025-09-30

In this article, we explore the possibilities offered by new information and communications technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in providing efficient digital solutions to support crime victims’ rights and their access to justice. Based on the results of the LINK Project (Linking Information for Adaptive and Accessible Child-Friendly Courts, involving Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovenia), this paper describes the blueprint for an information system named DIANA, which is designed to provide the following functionalities: victim data collection; procedural accommodation definition; risk assessment; data management; expert system information through an AI chatbot; secure chat for operators. The application of the DIANA blueprint in a real-world scenario, a prospective for future research, will allow for a clearer determination of essential elements such as the material and organisational costs of development, the actual user acceptance of the technology, and above all its capacity to support effectively the victims’ access to justice.

The Challenges of Personal Data Processing in Developing AI-Driven Tools for Judicial Proceedings in the EU: The Example of CREA2

Lana K. Gotvan — 2025-09-30

This article examines the challenges of processing personal data in the development of tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) for judicial proceedings in the European Union (EU), as encountered during the CREA2 project. The article underscores the importance of access to judicial decisions as essential inputs for such tools, while also addressing concerns related to the processing of personal data contained within these inputs. Following the introduction, Section 2 provides a brief overview of the relevant EU data protection regulatory framework, with a focus on key provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Section 3 further explores the GDPR by examining the concepts of data anonymisation and pseudonymisation, particularly in the context of privacy protection. Section 4 analyses the intersection of data protection and AI, highlighting the specific challenges encountered during the data collection phase of the CREA2 project. Finally, Section 5 discusses future developments and Section 6 summarises the key issues discussed and presents concluding remarks.

Redefining Dispute Resolution Mechanisms for Digital Assets in the Metaverse: Exploring the Role of Blockchain and Emerging Technologies

Gioia Arnone — 2025-09-30

The rapid expansion of digital assets and the metaverse, powered by blockchain and other advanced technologies, presents new challenges for dispute resolution and legal frameworks. This study examines the legal landscape of digital assets, highlighting complexities in contractual obligations, ownership, and governance. As blockchain enables decentralised transactions and ownership—raising issues around security, intellectual property, and jurisdiction—traditional legal systems struggle to keep pace. This research explores blockchain’s potential to enhance dispute resolution via decentralised arbitration and smart contracts, which offer efficiency, immutability, and transparency. Approaches to digital property disputes in the metaverse are evolving, and new alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods, including mediation, arbitration, and online dispute resolution (ODR), are emerging.

Additionally, this study investigates how technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI) reshape regulation and enforcement in the metaverse. By analysing regulatory efforts, it identifies key areas where legal frameworks can be improved to protect digital asset owners, promote innovation, and enable fair conflict resolution in a fast-changing virtual economy. Ultimately, the findings underscore the need for adaptive, forward-looking legal responses that embrace technological progress to address the metaverse’s unique challenges.

The AI Turn in Asset Division: Reflections and Directions for Family Law, and Beyond

Marco Giacalone — 2025-09-30

This article explores the integration of artificial intelligence into the domain of family law, with a particular emphasis on asset division and the digitalisation of dispute resolution processes. Drawing on the collective findings of the CREA2 project and the prospective developments of CREA3, it reflects on the potential and limitations of deploying large language models, machine learning, and video-enabled legal tools in both national and cross-border contexts. The discussion is grounded in contributions from the CREA2 conference, which addressed themes ranging from remote marital recognition and AI-driven applications for victims (of domestic violence) support to data governance and disputes in virtual environments. Against this backdrop, the article advocates for a hybrid model of legal practice – combining computational precision with professional oversight – while emphasising the normative imperative of designing AI-based systems that respect procedural safeguards, data protection requirements, and the fundamental values of justice.

The New Geopolitical Order and the Weaponisation of EU Digital Law

Edoardo Celeste — 2025-09-30