Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week was held for a second year in a row, from 13 until 18 November 2023, within the ALF project. This year, the conferences, meetings, and events were held at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law and in the Center for Legal Fundamentals as well as in the premises of the Law Office Moravčević Vojnović and Partners in cooperation with Schoenherr.
This year’s Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week topic was “AI and Law”, and the week was officially opened with the 10th International Students Conference in Theory and Philosophy of Law dealing precisely with those issues form the students’ perspective, titled “Law and Digital Technologies”. The Conference was opened with a keynote speech given by Professor Djordje Krivokapić from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences University of Belgrade.
The students’ panels were moderated by ALF young academic scholars and members of the Eudamonia Editorial Board, Mila Đordjević, Ana Zdravković, Sava Vojnović as well as Mina Kuzminac, and by professors Miodrag Jovanović and Miloš Zdravković.
The second part of Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week encompassed three Belgrade Legal Theory Group meetings. On the 14th of November, Professor Marco Segatti from the University of Genoa gave a lecture on the topic “The Problem with Hart’s Habits: Elements of a Humean conception of social obligation“, where he talked about Hart’s critique of Austin and offered a redefinition of habits. On the 15th of November, Professor Domingos Farinho, from the University of Lisbon and a senior Researcher of the Lisbon Public Law Research Centre talked about a “Regulation of Artificial Intelligence in the EU” and analyzed EU AI act proposal by using an Hohfeldian approach. Finally, on the 16th of November, Elena Ferrari, Allegra Grillo, and Professor Alessio Sardo, from the University of Genoa discussed the problems, doubts, and possible regulations of rent controls in Europe while presenting their topic “The Judicialization of Rent Controls in Europe”. BLTG meetings were moderated by WP6 members: post-Doc fellow at the University of Belgrade, Dr. Julieta Rabanos and young academic scholars Marija Vlajković and Ana Zdravković.
The following event during the Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week was the Conference “Libraries and Artificial Intelligence”, held on 17 November 2023, at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. The Conference was moderated by Vanja Eror, Head of the Library at University of Belgrade Faculty of Law and Deputy-Head Branka Dragosavac, as well as by Professor Bojan Spaić from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. The first speaker at the Conference was Aleksandar Linc, from Data Science Serbia, followed by Dr. Novak Vujičić from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law who presented the topic Copyright and Libraries. Following panels included presentations by Dejana Kavaja and Adam Sofronijević from the University Library Svetozar Marković, Milica Ševkušić, from the Institute of Technological Sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Nebojša Krstić from Neolibris, Biljana Kosanović and Vladimir Otašević from the Computer Centre of the University of Belgrade.
The final two-day Conference “AI and Law” of the Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week consisted of two parts. First part of the Conference titled “AI in Legal Practice” was held on 17 November 2023, and it was organised in cooperation with the of Law Office Moravčević Vojnović and Partners in cooperation with Schoenherr. The conference took place at the Law Office premises and was opened by a keynote speech given by Prof. Burkhard Schafer from the Edinburgh Law School, on the topic “AI and the Future of the Legal Profession”. The following panels moderated by Professor Bojan Spaić and Professor Miodrag Jovanović tackled the practical implications of artificial intelligence in the legal profession. Expert speakers and practitioners dealt with the use and abuse of artificial intelligence. In the first panel Dubravko Ćulibrk from the Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development of Serbia, Jelena Arsić, attorney at law and partner in the Law Office Moravčević Vojnović and Partners, and Professor Svetislav Kostić from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, dealt with the use of artificial intelligence while in the second panel Andrea Radonjanin, and Marija Vlajković, attorneys at law and partners in the Law Office Moravčević Vojnović and Partners discussed together with Professor Djordje Krivokapić from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Organizational Sciences about the abuse of the artificial intelligence and its legal implications.
Lastly, the second part of the “AI and Law” conference – “AI and Philosophy of Law” was held on the following day, on 18 November 2023, at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. Speakers and panelists aimed to critically assess recent developments in AI and machine learning from a philosophical perspective. The keynote speech was again given by Prof. Burkhard Schafer from the Edinburgh Law School. Professor Giovanni Tuzet, from the Bocconi University talked about “AI and Testimony” while Professors Bojan Spaić and Miodrag Jovanović, from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law presented the topic “Artificial Reason and Artificial Inteligence: Testing the Legal Reasoning Capabilities of LLMs”. Professor Przemysław Pałka, from the Jagiellonian University analyzed the question “What’s (non-)humanly possible: AI, law’s assumptions, and the case of privacy law”, and Professor Domingos Farinho, from the University of Lisbon this time tackled the question “AI and interpretation: what could go wrong?”. Post-Doc Fellow at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, Julieta Rabanos and Professor Bojan Spaić presented the topic “The Death of the Legal Author: Artificial intelligence and Authority in Law”, and Masha Medvedeva from the Leiden University gave the participants “A Comprehensive Guide to Legal Judgment Prediction”. Professor Pedro Moniz Lopes from the University of Lisbon offered the audience “Some Background Theoretical Aspects of Similarity in Artificial Intelligence” while María Victoria Carro from University of Buenos Aires talked about “The causal inference ability of the LLMs in the legal process”. Finally, Dr. Novak Vujičić from the Faculty of Law University of Belgrade presented his insights on the topic “The Emergence of AI: A Need for a New Rebalancing of Copyright?”.
Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week was officialy closed with a CLF courtyard reception, where participants, guests and organizers had a chance to continue the discussions sparked during numerous events and celebrate the finalisation of a very successfull academic week.
All in all, this year’s Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week had the opportunity to host around 74 speakers from more than 10 countries and over 15 different universities, as well as from numerous institutes, institutions, and law offices.
The organizers thank all participants, moderators, guests, and the audience for the participation in the events and conferences during the Belgrade Legal Philosophy Week, as well as supporting partners Moravčević Vojnović and Partners in cooperation with Schoenherr, Digital Serbia Initiative and Serbian Association for Legal and Social Philosophy.
Looking froward to seeing you next year!
