We want to outline the constitutional framework for certain innovative projects. We do not attempt to give the one right answer how innovation ought to be regulated. Instead, we aim to find where the boundaries lie for a whole range of solutions that are consistent with the constitution.

To be consistent with the constitution, rules on innovation need to be adopted in the proper democratic procedure. They must be sufficiently clear, the courts must be able to check whether the rules comply with the constitution, and the rules must not breach any fundamental rights.

At the same time, certain innovative products and services have the potential to change how the political arena works and what is considered a timely and “innovative” constitution.

In the Innovative Constitutionalism working group, we work on both the framework that the constitution provides for innovations, and the effect of innovations on the constitution itself.

The group is led by Iris Eisenberger, Professor of Public Law and European Economic Law at the University of Graz.

Current projects involve the integration of embodied artificial intelligence into healthcare and society and the digitalization processes within asylum procedures.

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The goal of this group is to enable an interdisciplinary approach towards the regulation of innovative, digital technologies.

We are convinced, that all parts of society should have equal possibilities to participate in decisions regarding innovative technologies. Technology is not something that just “happens”. It is something that is being actively made and can and should therefore be actively modelled to serve societies’ needs.

To enable this, we foster a bottom-up approach towards innovative, collaborative legislation by making the legal process clearer, more understandable, and more approachable to the general public.

We focus on the communication of law, the participation in legal decision-making and how society experiences regulations regarding innovative technologies.

We are using interdisciplinary, non-traditional approaches within the traditional field of legal research to broaden not only the publics, but also the scholars understanding of the interplay between law, technology, and society.

Current projects involve a simulated Social-Scoring-App and research on the framing and communication of expertise in crisis legislation.

The Participative Legal Innovation Group is led by Annemarie Hofer, who has an interdisciplinary background including environmental studies, law, economics, citizen science and communication.

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The goal is to explore the effects of legal tech on the level of practices, discourses, and materialities.

We do not see technology as a neutral actor, but rather something that incorporates values and visions. We think that technology tends to change and stabilize certain visions of a social system and the way it operates.

We therefore critically investigate, how the legal system and its inner logic change based on the usage of technologies. We want to know, if the introduction of new technologies is changing the mechanisms of knowing, decoding and legitimizing within the legal domain.

To do so, the Critical Legal Tech group pairs legal expertise with insights and theories from social science and computer science.

Current projects involve digitalization processes within asylum procedures and the responsible adoption of disruptive technologies.

The Critical Legal Tech Group is led by Nikolaus Poechhacker, a Science and Technology scholar with a professional background in IT and computer science, who is currently focusing on the social dimensions of digital technologies and algorithms.

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As innovative products and services become more complex, the consequences of deploying them become more difficult to anticipate. As a reaction to this development, concepts of co-creative tech regulation have emerged.

Testing a new product or service may require an exception from current legal rules, e.g. in order to test automated vehicles on public roads. Co-creative tech regulation is also about testing the law applicable to new technologies. This can mitigate legal uncertainty about how a new technology fits into the existing legal framework, which can be useful in order to anticipate technological developments that render established legal concepts ineffective.

We analyse and compare a range of different legal instruments that are currently being used to set up spaces for co-creative tech regulation.

Current projects involve research on energy communities and the co-creation of industry standards to encourage the use of climate-friendly technologies and

The Co-Creative Tech Regulation Group is led by Thomas Buocz, who is currently working on his doctoral thesis in innovation law. He has worked with co-creative tech regulation concepts in the context of national and international interdisciplinary research projects.

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