On 4 and 5 of July 2023, the University of Luxembourg organized an international conference on the topic ‘Private actors as judges and enforcers in the technology-driven world’.
This conference addressed the problem of the public role of private actors in enforcement from different perspectives. It focused on the public role of private actors from different angles to find commonalities in this tendency to increasingly transfer the enforcement and adjudication role (and burden) to private actors.
Multiple high-profile speakers from academia, EU institutions, the private sector and practitioners’ circles discussed the public role of private actors from different angles and fostered an in-depth debate on this tendency.
The main takeaways from the conference are:
- Private actors are gaining more and more ground in enforcement in different fields taking roles which increasingly assimilate them to judges; increasingly often do they have to solve conflicts between competing values and fundamental rights; however, this shifting in the legal landscape raises questions about their adequacy for the task and their democratic legitimacy;
- Although cooperation with private actors in gathering electronic evidence, combatting illicit speech and improving AML/CFT enforcement seems to be necessary, the enhanced role of private actors has triggered new challenges regarding the compliance of private actors with conflicting obligations internationally, the protection of fundamental rights and the efficiency of the financial market;
- As the main tool of expression in various domains, such as politics, digital platforms are entrusted with the moderation of online content in both the EU and the USA bearing the burden of combatting abuses, but also in practice setting the limits of freedom of expression;
- Private investigations, necessary due to the increasing complexity of corporate reality, require further research and reflection in order to ensure adequate protection of fundamental rights and the rule of law principle;
- The use of AI tools is already on the table in gathering evidence, moderating content combatting AML and private investigations, giving rise to many challenges including questions about the adequacy of the current legal framework.
A big thank you to all presenters and participants for sharing research, insights and contributing to this very successful event.
