Future Tech Law Clinics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Future Tech Law Clinics

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Digital technologies currently have, and will have in the future, a significant impact on legal rules. The legal framework will have to adapt, if not to renew itself, to make technological development as smooth as possible, in full consistency with the founding principles of our legal orders. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s driving force behind these transformations. They therefore have to be exposed to these issues and tackle the impact of digital technologies (i.e. robotics, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, blockchain and smart contracts, etc.) on legal orders. Moreover, the real nature of digital technologies (a still under-regulated ecosystem, without physical borders) requires an EU approach.

TechLa aims to develop a new educational approach using prospective law clinics culminating in moot courts, and Spring schools, in order to raise students’ awareness about the challenging legal implications posed by digital technologies. This educational experience will also serve as a legal experiment to generate research and legal recommendations on law & technology, with which the students will be associated.

TechLa has the following objectives:
• Pedagogical: applying legal theory to upcoming/prospective cases at the intersection of law and technology, and contributing to drafting possible new legal rules;
• Professionalization :
o training students, through the clinical approach and on the basis of the moot court method, to real-life professional situations (lawyers, magistrates) leading them to embody lawyers and magistrates’ functions (writing of legal acts and pleadings) in real conditions (at a court);
o building new legal capacities that are out of traditional curricula (law and new technologies) for Bachelor and Master level students , improving their employability as legal experts in the digital economy.
• Research:
o Drafting of scientific papers suggesting innovative legal approaches dealing with digital technologies (e.g. autonomous vehicle, home automation, companion robots);
o Finding a common legal approach at the EU level as regards legal challenges raised by digital technologies
o building an EU expert group, involving academics, students, practitioners and industrial actors and contributing to national and EU institutional initiatives in this area.

TechLa will:
• develop five experimental digital technologies prospective law clinics, testing identical issues in separate legal environments (France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland) => TechLa moot courts and spring schools
• provide a sustainable methodology for comparing and contrasting legal systems, determining the common legal denominators and then proposing a possible common legal framework as part of a future European legal framework both for legal practitioners and for EU citizens = > TechLa methodology guide and web-based platform
• showcase the project on the social media and during students’ fairs and information days, to attract new students, new partners and in general create awareness among new audiences => awareness raising activities and audiovisual materials
• co-write with students and Techla associated partners scientific articles pursuing the legal analysis initiated in the prospective law clinics, constituting elements of prospective multidisciplinary doctrine for practitioners, academics and tech companies => TechLa research papers

TechLa will take an open approach, focusing on sharing, via an open-access web-based platform, that will ensure the transferability of the skills acquired and of the legal solutions evaluated by the students.

TechLa will involve 276 students from France, Poland, Italy and the Netherlands, who will be supervised by law academics from 5 universities and coached by magistrates, engineers and lawyers from each represented country. Exploitability and replicability of TechLa will be verified in various public and private sectors such as courts, tech companies in different areas (smart transport, blockchain, online marketing and smart energy sectors), and lawfirms that are specialized in new technologies. TechLa’s new training approach will improve agility in decision making of current and future legal experts, give rise to new teaching profiles/fields, and lead to sustainable changes on how to anticipate the risks associated with developing off-the-shelf products or in basic research.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 366193 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASSOCIATION DES FONDATEURS ET PROTECTEURS DE L’INSTITUT CATHOLIQUE DE LYON & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Stichting Radboud Universiteit
• UNIWERSYTET LODZKI
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DEL PIEMONTE ORIENTALE AMEDEO AVOGADRO
• UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI