The growing influence of Big Tech companies and digital platforms has created new challenges for democratic governance and the rule of law. Information is increasingly produced, curated, ranked, and disseminated through algorithmic systems and technological infrastructures controlled by powerful private actors. The concentration of data, technological infrastructure, and informational power raises fundamental questions about democratic accountability, freedom of expression, access to information, and the conditions under which citizens participate in public life.
Against this background, this open panel focuses on the role of courts and judicial institutions in addressing the political, legal, and democratic challenges generated by emerging technologies and the growing power of Big Tech. It invites theoretical, empirical, and comparative research examining how courts can, should, or do respond to the governance of digital platforms, algorithmic systems, artificial intelligence, personal data, content moderation, political communication, and new forms of informational and technological concentration.
The panel welcomes contributions addressing, among other issues, judicial review of Big Tech regulation; litigation involving digital platforms and technology companies; judicial responses to algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence; data protection and informational rights; freedom of expression and content moderation; disinformation and electoral integrity; judicial communication in digital environments; the accountability of private technological actors; legal mobilization against Big Tech; and the role of courts in addressing emerging concentrations of economic, technological, and informational power.
Particular attention will be given to the conditions under which courts may constrain, facilitate, or reshape the power of Big Tech and other private technological actors. Contributions may also examine the institutional capacity and limits of judicial intervention, interactions between courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies, the transnational dimensions of digital regulation, and the tensions between technological innovation, private autonomy, fundamental rights, and democratic accountability.
By bringing together research on judicial power and technological governance, the panel seeks to advance broader debates about the capacity of courts to safeguard democratic institutions in an increasingly digital political environment. It asks not only whether and how Big Tech should be regulated, but also by whom, under what legal and democratic principles, and with what consequences for democracy and the rule of law.
