ALTI Amsterdam

[event] Catalina Goanta: Miniconsumers
2026-06-02 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Paris) | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Catalina Goanta is Associate Professor in Private Law and Technology and Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant HUMANads, focused on understanding the impact of content monetization on social media and on reinterpreting private law fairness in the context of platform governance. Between 2016–2021 she was Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University, and during February 2018–February 2019, she was a Niels Stensen fellow and visited the University of St. Gallen (The Institute of Work and Employment) and Harvard University (The Berkman Center for Internet and Society).
Description: “The kids aren’t alright.” In the EU and beyond, policy attention has recently turned to children’s online activities. Many countries, from Australia to Brazil, are doubling down on platform regulation and social media bans, adopting new data protection and children’s rights frameworks to oversee these activities and protect minors from harms ranging from grooming to problematic or addictive use.
Yet this narrative is missing an important component: children are also consumers, and their online presence is based on transactions and contracts they may or may not have the legal capacity to enter into. This presentation explores the research gap surrounding children’s legal capacity: what minors are and are not permitted to engage with contractually in digital environments, and whether current legal standards should evolve in light of emerging scientific evidence.
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Format: Catalina Goanta will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.

[event] Pēteris Zilgalvis: AI at the CJUE
2026-06-16 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Pēteris Zilgalvis entered office as Judge of the General Court of the European Union in 2021. Before joining the General Court, Mr Zilgalvis served as Head of Unit for Digital Innovation and Blockchain at the European Commission and also held several positions at the European Commission, Council of Europe, and in the Latvian administration.
Description: This seminar is an exceptional opportunity to engage directly with Judge Pēteris Zilgalvis (EU General Court) on the recently adopted CJEU Artificial Intelligence Ethics Charter. At a time when courts are increasingly confronted with the promises and perils of AI, the Charter signals an ambitious attempt to reconcile technological efficiency with the foundational principles of adjudication, i.e., human oversight, independence, and fundamental rights. The talk will shed light on how the CJEU is operationalising these principles in practice, and on the broader implications for the future of judicial decision-making in an AI-driven environment.
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Format: Judge Zilgalvis will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.

[event] Marco Almada: The Hidden Costs of Technology-Neutral Regulation
2026-06-18 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Marco Almada is a researcher working on matters of law and technology. He currently works as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Cyber Policy at the University of Luxembourg, focusing on AI regulation and cybersecurity. His research is directed towards theoretical and doctrinal issues in regulation, with a special focus on the learning mechanisms used for navigating scenarios of deep socio-technical uncertainty. He has written extensively on the regulatory frameworks being designed for AI technologies and on the governance of AI in the public sector.
Description: Technology neutrality appears in instruments ranging from WTO trade rules to EU legislation on AI and platform governance, yet scholars and policymakers consistently struggle to define what it requires in practice. Marco Almada’s paper proposes a unifying framework: technology-neutral regulation is a delegation of power, specifically the power to determine how general rules apply to particular technologies. That reframing connects otherwise disparate accounts in the literature and explains why technology-neutral approaches often fall short or produce unintended side effects. Applied to EU digital regulation, the framework shows how abstraction from technical detail concentrates power in the hands of certain public and private actors while weakening existing accountability mechanisms.
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Format: Marco Almada will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.

[event] Jason Potts – Institutional Acceleration: Theory and Applications
2026-06-29 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Jason Potts is an evolutionary and institutional economist who specializes in economic dynamics and innovation in the digital economy, with a focus on the consequences of AI and blockchain technology. He works on the theory and policy of contribution systems, innovation commons, cryptoeconomics, creative industries and economic complexity. He is an editor of the Journal of Institutional Economics.
Description: New digital technologies now enable innovation directly in economic institutions, an evolutionary process that Potts calls ‘institutional acceleration’. This talk will review the theory of i/acc and discuss several case studies in the context of Saudi economic transformation (Vision 2030), new high-speed low-IP innovation systems emerging in Chinese cities, and new financial technologies for ecological regeneration to transform voluntary contributions into capital.
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Format: Jason Potts will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.
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