About the Conference
Contemporary regulatory environments are increasingly characterized by complex constellations of interacting actors, institutions, and governance mechanisms. Law no longer operates solely through hierarchical state institutions and (two party) relationships between actors, but through multi-actor networks.
In several disciplines, such constellations are analyzed through the concept of ecosystems, which highlights interdependence, coordination, and co-evolution among actors. While ecosystem perspectives have become influential in fields such as innovation studies, management, and economic geography, they have only rarely been systematically integrated into legal scholarship.
This conference aims to explore how ecosystem thinking can advance legal research. It seeks to develop conceptual and methodological approaches for studying law within complex institutional environments, and to examine how law both shapes and is shaped by different types of ecosystems.
Bringing together legal scholars and interdisciplinary researchers, the conference aims to contribute to the development of a research agenda on legal ecosystems.
The Call for Papers is now closed
PROGRAMME
| DAY 1: 12 OCTOBER 2026 Venue: S.D. 013 ( Grote Kauwenberg 18, 2000 Antwerp) | ||
| 9:00 | Welcome and coffee | |
| Junior Scholars Workshop (Roundtable) | ||
| 9:30 | Olesia Chizheva: Terms of Service as Ecosystem Coordination: Testing Whether EU AI and Copyright Regulation Redistributes Power in the Generative AI Value Chain | Discussant 1: Feyisayo Lari-Williams Discussant 2: Dorota Piechowiak |
| 10:20 | Marvi Qazi: The EU Governance of Technical Standards for Digital Infrastructure: Explaining Regulatory Variation Beyond the New Approach | Discussant 1: Malek Ferjani Discussant 2: Jasper Smet |
| 11:10 | Dorota Piechowiak: Governance Below the Surface: Private Power, Public Authority, and the Layered Security Regime of the EU Submarine Telecommunication Network | Discussant 1: Viola Heutger Discussant 2: Marvi Qazi |
| 12:00 | Lunch break | |
| 13:00 | Aanuoluwapo Babalola: Integrated Data-Driven Mobility Ecosystems | Discussant 1: Josje de Vogel Discussant 2: Olesia Chizheva |
| 13:50 | Jasper Smet: Legal pathways for risk distribution in urban micromobility ecosystems | Discussant 1: Marta Kołacz Discussant 2: Aanuoluwapo Babalola |
| 14:40 | Coffee break | |
| 15:15 | Conference Opening | |
| 15:30 | Keynote I: TBA | |
| 16:15 | Keynote II: TBA | |
| 17:00 | Announcements | |
| 17:30 | Guided Tour | |
| 19:00 | Dinner (self-funded) | |
| DAY 2: 13 OCTOBER 2026 Venue: S.D. 013 ( Grote Kauwenberg 18, 2000 Antwerp) | ||
| 9:15 | Arrival & Coffee | |
| 9:30 – 10:30 | Panel 1: Conceptualizing Legal Ecosystems I Chair: Ülkü Tanriverdi Giacomo Amato: Beyond public and private: shared administration (amministrazione condivisa) as a tool of legal ecosystems Ata Türkfiliz: Designing the Space Legal Ecosystem: A Dispute System Design Approach to the (New) Space Sector | |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Coffee break | |
| 11:00 – 12:00 | Panel 2: Conceptualizing Legal Ecosystems II Chair: Giselle Villegas Bourgoing Lyass Zeamari: From Categories to Ecosystems: Conceptualizing Digital Platforms for Proportionate Regulation Malek Ferjani & Florian Zeilinger: Technical Rules, Political Choices: Locating Regulatory Decisions in the EU’s Rule-Making Ecosystem | |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch break | |
| 13:00 – 14:30 | Panel 3: Work & Labour Ecosystems Chair: Helena Verhuyck Giovanni Gaudio: Impact Assessments and the Transformation of Labour Regulation: Towards a Participatory Legal Ecosystem in the Platform Economy Vivien Kühnen: Fairwork Jordan 2023 and 2025 Marc Steiert: Regulatory Ecosystems, Structural Change, and the Transformation of Work in European Capitalism | |
| 14:30 – 14:50 | Coffee break | |
| 14:50 – 16:20 | Panel 4: Mobility & Logistics Ecosystems I Chair: Hai Anh Le Nour El Alaoui: From Transport Systems to Sustainable Digital Freight Ecosystems Jasper Smet: Mapping the legal ecosystem for urban micromobility through systematic review of governance strategies Marta Kołacz: Ecosystem Liability in EU Law: Governing Digital, Mobility and Circular-Economy Ecosystems | |
| 16:20 -16:40 | Coffee Break | |
| 16:40 – 17:40 | Panel 5: Mobility & Logistics Ecosystems II Chair: Jasper Smet Josje de Vogel: The Shared Mobility Ecosystem and the Limits of EU Consumer Law Hai Anh Le: Incorporating Roundtable as a methodological tool in identifying good practices on passenger rights protection in the shared mobility ecosystem | |
| DAY 3: 14 OCTOBER 2026 Venue: S.R. 124 (Rodestraat 14, 2000 Antwerp) | ||
| 8:45 | Arrival & Coffee | |
| 9:00 – 10:00 | Panel 6: Cross-cutting Perspectives I Chair: Nour El Alaoui Dorota Piechowiak: The Hidden Legal Ecosystem of the Internet Marvi Qazi: Law You Cannot Read: Access, Voice, and the Person in the Standards-Governed Legal Ecosystem | |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Coffee break | |
| 10:30 – 11:30 | Panel 7: Cross-cutting Perspectives II Chair: Alessia Tomo Parna Mukherjee & Rhishika Srivastava: Analysing the Conflicting Dimensions of AI Data Centre Ecosystems vis-à-vis Natural Ecosystems - A perspective from the Global South Olesia Chizheva: Provider Policies as Ecosystem Coordination: Testing Whether EU AI and Copyright Law Redistribute Regulatory Power in the Generative AI Value Chain | |
| 11:30 – 12:30 | Lunch | |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Panel 8: Methods for Legal Ecosystem Research Chair: Camilla Domenighini Andrea Palumbo: Post-marxist discourse analysis as a method to define and analyse legal ecosystems: a case study on systemic risk management Feyisayo Lari-Williams: Computational Methodology for Platform Regulation Research | |
| 13:30 -14:00 | Closing | |