Mireille Hildebrandt
AI-generated text. This page was generated using artificial intelligence.
Mireille Hildebrandt is a legal scholar whose work examines how machine learning and automated decisions affect law and constitutional democracy. Her research addresses both the regulation of technology and the consequences of using computational systems within legal practice itself.[1]
Roles and affiliations
Hildebrandt is an emeritus professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Radboud University. VUB's biography records her co-directorship of its Law, Science, Technology and Society research group from 2019 to 2024. She led the European Research Council-supported COHUBICOL project from 2019 to 2024 and co-founded the Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law with Laurence Diver; VUB identifies Frank Pasquale as her co-editor-in-chief.[1]
Contributions and positions
Computational law
COHUBICOL, short for Counting as a Human Being in the Era of Computational Law, brought lawyers at VUB together with computer scientists at Radboud. The project examined legal technologies, including applications, datasets and research publications, asking what they can actually do and how their operation relates to the rule of law.[2]
VUB's October 2023 account describes the project as testing claims about automation in legal services rather than assuming that technical performance and legal adequacy are equivalent. It highlights questions about the functionality offered, possible failures and consequences for legal practice. Hildebrandt's stated concern was to preserve rule-of-law guarantees as computational tools become more embedded in legal institutions.[2]
Legal protection by design
Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folk introduces legal reasoning to readers developing or evaluating technology. Its author-hosted chapter summaries address the relationship between law and democracy, the distinction between private, public and criminal law, and legal rules governing software and data. The book treats law as an interconnected institutional structure rather than a checklist that can be understood without its underlying principles.[3]
Its later chapters examine legal personhood for AI and the difference between implementing rules in software and designing systems that preserve legal protection. The latter discussion addresses how machine learning and blockchain can affect equality, legal certainty and human dignity. The approach asks how technical design can leave space for interpretation, challenge and the institutional safeguards associated with law.[3]
Selected works
- Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folk (Oxford University Press, 2020) — the university bibliographic record provides an open-access link to the published edition.[4]
- Law for Computer Scientists — author-hosted open-review version and chapter summaries; distinguish this manuscript site from the final published edition.[3]
Coverage
VUB's October 2023 COHUBICOL account reports on the collaboration between legal and computer-science researchers. The LSTS biography separately supplies the project's dates and Hildebrandt's emeritus status. These institutional sources document the research program without establishing that any particular legal technology satisfies its standards.[2][1]
Related articles
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Vrije Universiteit Brussel LSTS, Mireille Hildebrandt, biography. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Examining Legal Tech in the European VUB COHUBICOL Project, October 30, 2023. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Mireille Hildebrandt, Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folk, author-hosted open-review manuscript and chapter summaries. Accessed September 12, 2026.
- ↑ Vrije Universiteit Brussel research portal, Law for Computer Scientists and Other Folk (Oxford University Press, 2020), bibliographic record and open-access link. Accessed September 12, 2026.