The Clinic: Digital Justice

The project examines the regulatory landscape and protection gaps surrounding generative AI companions in the EU, in partnership with the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). Students analyze consumer-facing AI companion services, the risks of material and immaterial harm they pose, and relevant EU frameworks, including the AI Act, GDPR, consumer law, and product safety rules. They also compile global case law and enforcement actions.

Alongside legal research, students use a structured protocol to conduct exploratory empirical approaches that evaluate practices, user interactions, and demographic targeting. This work identifies misleading, unsafe, or exploitative designs that may breach EU regulations.

The project aims to produce a comprehensive document that synthesizes legal and empirical findings. It highlights harm trends, regulatory blind spots, and actionable recommendations. Students will present their conclusions directly to BEUC and within the clinic programme, contributing to ongoing EU advocacy and awareness efforts regarding harmful AI practices.

• Partner: European Consumer Organisation (BEUC)
• Tutor: Lyubomir Nikiforov 

Age verification is becoming an increasingly important tool for protecting minors online. Governments and regulators in Europe and around the world are considering, adopting or enforcing measures that require users to prove their age before accessing certain online services. These measures aim to protect children, but they also raise complex questions about privacy, data protection and fundamental rights.

This project will compare the legal and technical approaches developed in Australia, the United States, the UK, and at the European level. It will examine how age verification works in practice, who should be responsible for carrying it out, and what safeguards are necessary to prevent excessive data collection, surveillance or exclusion.

The project will pay particular attention to people who may have difficulty proving their age, including those without suitable identity documents or smartphones, people with disabilities, and individuals affected by inaccurate or biased age-estimation technologies. It will also assess the practical advantages and limitations of risk-based regulation, restricted-service lists and different verification providers.

The project is especially timely as new legislation and regulatory guidance are rapidly shaping the future of online access and minor protection online. Its aim is to identify approaches that remain proportionate, inclusive and respectful of fundamental rights.

• Partner: Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL)
• Tutor: Tamara Bivol 

AI products are causing harm in many different ways across the European Union. Liability law and litigation will be the main tools for addressing the harms, accidents, and errors the rapidly growing AI sector will produce. The courts across the EU’s 27 jurisdictions are deciding how to handle many of these harms as we speak. But until now, no single place existed where the research, policy, legal, and developer community could turn to see what kinds of harms are being alleged and what courts across the Union are deciding, thereby creating case law. 

Students in this year’s Digital Justice clinical project will research AI-related incidents across the EU and develop an interactive online portal through which lawyers, judges, policymakers, academics, developers, and any interested individual can track the progress of these cases and understand the AI liability landscape in Europe. They will also publish analysis of jurisprudential trends, evolutions in the field, and the real-world applications of different EU legal regimes. 

By combining legal research with website development, analysis, and public-facing outreach, this project offers an opportunity to make a real contribution to AI legal research and lay the groundwork for protecting individuals from harm. 

• Partner: Sciences Po Law School and Center for Democracy and Technology Europe
• Tutor: Jenna Kaplan

The digital transformation of trade, services, and sales forces has accelerated with the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within companies in recent years.  AI is both an opportunity to automate certain arduous tasks and a threat to certain jobs, which might disappear.

Employee representatives protect employees by raising individual and collective concerns, engaging in collective bargaining, and using their right to raise alerts to anticipate potential job losses.

They ensure employers do not impose AI systems on employees without considering employees’ evolving skills and exploiting current legal uncertainties. Indeed, the legal framework regulating the use of AI in companies is complex. European AI regulations must align with French legal, regulatory, and conventional rules, making it difficult for both employees and their representatives to assess the risks at stake. 

The “Kit IA” will allow employee representatives to address AI-related topics and risks (by clearly defining AI, identifying the main applicable rules and possible claims) while initiating an in-depth analysis of AI and employment for jobs within the scope of the CFTC-CSFV.

• Partner: CFTC-CSFV (Fédération des Syndicats Commerce, Services et Force de vente)
• Tutor: Pauline Bousch

The right of patients over their biological material and personal data is a key aspect of the legal debate in medicine. Consent, non-objection, and security of data are supposed to guarantee patient protection, while the regulation system, although already in place, continues to be confusing both for doctors and, especially, for patients themselves. With the growing importance of artificial intelligence, protection of medical data against any misuse becomes essential. 

The project focuses on patient data and rights in connection with the gathering of biological specimens and personal data for non-interventional medical research with the Research, Innovation and Strategy Department (DRIS) at GHU Nord at AP-HP (public hospitals of Paris). The project is intended to culminate in the delivery of technical guides for patients, health professionals conducting research projects, as well as DRIS legal team specifying the applicable rules and texts.

To do so, students conduct regulatory research on consent, non-opposition, data protection, the readability of texts as well as obstacles to implementation faced by health professionals and patients. In addition to this research, students work on practical cases and cross-questioning with the help of the legal team of AP-HP in order to identify the requirements of each audience.

• Partner: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP)
• Tutor: Héloïse Croisille