Law has an important function in ensuring that the benefits of technological innovation can be fully harnessed and that burdens are fairly distributed. However, there are diverging views on when technological progress, such as the rise of AI, requires a complete transformation of existing legal frameworks and when cautious adaptation is sufficient. The latter approach acknowledges the almost endless adaptability of law through reinterpretation of existing principles and instruments. The aim of this conference is to present and confront various views on how private law should be ‘updated’ to meet the challenges arising from novel, technologically-enabled social and commercial practices.

To provide a platform for discussion of these issues, the CCTL Obligations Lab Asia at CUHK LAW will hold an online conference titled “Transformation or Adaptation? Private Law and New Technologies” on Friday, 12 May 2023, 2:00 to 7:30pm (Hong Kong time). If circumstances permit, some or all of the conference may be conducted in hybrid mode.

The conference will explore how private law should facilitate or cushion the impact of new technologies.

Examples of topic areas to be explored include:

• Liability for/of AI
• Private law implications of automation
• Private law, blockchain technology and smart contracts
• Protection of consumer rights in the digital era
• Private legal regulation of the platform economy
• Reform of specific obligations law doctrines
• Comparative, theoretical and empirical approaches to private law reform in a data-driven world

The conference is directed at emerging as well as established scholars and practitioners of private law in Asia and beyond. To express your interest in presenting at the conference, please send a draft title, an abstract (150-300 words) and a short bio with your affiliation (around 150 words) to the Obligations Law Asia at cctl.law@cuhk.edu.hk by Friday, 3 February 2023. Please also indicate whether you would prefer to participate remotely or in Hong Kong.

Decisions on submitted abstracts and invitations to present at the conference will be communicated by Monday, 13 February 2023.

Visit the conference website for more details.