It is often said that the law moves at a glacial pace while technology moves at the speed of light. Tomorrow, February 14th, 2026, I’ll be virtually heading to Iaşi (or at least, my digital avatar will) to witness what happens when those two worlds collide at the COPEJI 9.0 International Conference: „Legal Perspectives on the Internet”
While most people associate mid-February with romantic gestures, the legal academic community has opted for a different kind of passion: debating whether we can actually „Govern the Ungovernable”.
Why This Matters (Beyond the Buzzwords)
As an observer with a penchant for AI/Tech Law and privacy, the agenda for this conference is a masterclass in modern anxiety. We aren’t just talking about „the internet” anymore; we are dissecting the „Black Box” of algorithmic adjudication, the „digital double” of the modern worker, and the fragile line between commercial influence and psychological manipulation.+2
The conference is structured around some truly heavy-hitting themes that resonate with my focus on structured, risk-motivated evaluations:
- The Constitutional Frontier: Panels will explore „Digital Constitutionalism,” asking if our traditional territorial sovereignty can survive in a world of transboundary data flows and private „gatekeeper” platforms.
- The Criminal Complexity: From the „industrialization” of cybercrime to the existental question of whether an AI can—or should—be held criminally liable, the sessions promise to push the boundaries of traditional legal interpretation.
- The Private Law Pivot: I’m particularly keen on the discussions regarding „Dark Patterns” and the erosion of party autonomy in the digital economy. As it turns out, „I accept the terms and conditions” might be the greatest legal fiction of our century
The Highlights I’m Tracking
A few specific abstracts have already caught my analytical eye:
- „A Tale of Two AI Models”: A literary-legal comparison between the cooperative „Mike” from Heinlein’s fiction and the opaque, cautionary tale of HAL 9000
- „Piercing the Algorithmic Veil”: A pragmatic look at when the „human-in-the-loop” becomes a legal myth and how we might hold developers directly liable for autonomous agent behavior
- „Neural Data Processing”: A deep dive into the legal safeguards needed when technology begins to infer not just what we do, but what we think.+1
Final Thoughts
In an era where a 16-year-old can be guided to tragedy by a chatbot, or an AI can potentially be listed as a patent inventor, „business as usual” for the legal profession is officially over. COPEJI 9.0 isn’t just a conference; it’s a necessary attempt to build a „meta-artificiality”—a higher-level legal framework to govern the systems that now govern us.
I’ll be attending the Online Room sessions, ready to engage with these solid sources and well-motivated risk assessments. If the law is truly to remain the „governor of governors,” we have some serious catching up to do.
