Webinar | Algorithmic regulation in between the rule of law and the rule by law

Public authorities are increasingly turning to algorithmic systems to apply and enforce the law, which is often denoted as ‘algorithmic regulation’. Their adoption of algorithmic regulation tends to be motivated by the desire to improve public services and to better fulfil citizens’ rights, thus seemingly contributing to the rule of law. However, in practice, many use cases have demonstrated how reliance on algorithmic systems can undermine the law’s protective power and instead lead to a rule by law. In this presentation, I seek to make sense of this apparent contradiction. By analysing a concrete example of algorithmic regulation, I examine how the algorithmisation of the law can alter its very nature and consider how this alteration risks eroding the protection that the law affords .