Law at the End of the Day

Larry Catá Backer's comments on current issues in transnational law and policy. These essays focus on the constitution of regulatory communities (political, economic, and religious) as they manage their constituencies and the conflicts between them. The context is globalization. This is an academic field-free zone: expect to travel "without documents" through the sometimes strongly guarded boundaries of international relations, constitutional, international, comparative, and corporate law.

Monday, June 08, 2026

European China Law Studies Association (ECLS) Summer Academy 2026 Law and Technology in China

I am delighted to pass along information about the European China Law Studies Association Summer Academy 2026, which this year has as its theme Law and Technology in China. The Summer Academy is scheduled for 1-4 September 2026 on the campus of the University of Turin (Italy).

Here is the description from the Summer Academy brochure:

Few legal systems engage as actively with the governance of emerging technologies as China’s does. It is developing regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence, biotechnology and algorithmic decision-making, all the while building a comprehensive smart court system and integrating technology into its modes of governance. Making sense of this requires more than policy literacy. It requires familiarity with the underlying legal architecture and the specific tensions that shape how rules are made, applied, and contested in a distinct legal culture.
The Department of Law at the University of Turin, in collaboration with the European China Law Studies Association (ECLS), is presenting the second edition of the ECLS Summer Academy on Chinese Law and Technology. Over four intensive days, internationally acclaimed specialists will guide participants through the constitutional foundations, data governance, criminal law, biotechnology and more. The goal is not to provide an overview, but to facilitate a structured encounter with a legal system whose decisions regarding the regulation of technology are becoming increasingly important well beyond China’s borders. Participants will leave with sharper analytical tools and a firmer grasp of a field that is reshaping legal practice and scholarship worldwide.
The Academy is open to doctoral researchers, advanced students, and legal professionals seeking rigorous, first-hand engagement with Chinese law.

It has a great faculty including Bjorn Ahl, Marianne von Blomberg, Daniel Sprick, Ge Chen, Monika Prusinowska, Simona Novaretti, Knut Banjamin Pissler, Viola Negro, Guo Zhiyuan, and Anna Maria Rizzo.

Brochure follows below.

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About this Site:

At the end of the day, law?

. . . . Emperors and kings

Are but obeyed in their several provinces,

Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds;

But his domain that exceeds in this

Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man.

A sound magician is a mighty god.

* * *

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,

And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,

That sometimes grew within this learned man.

Faustus is gone; regard his hellish fall,

Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise

Only to wonder at unlawful things,

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits

To practise more than heavenly power permits.

Christopher Marlowe, "Dr. Faustus" (before 1593)

Copyright; Citation and Attribution:

All essays are (c) Larry Catá Backer except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
The essays may be cited and quoted with appropriate reference. Suggested reference as follows:
Larry Catá Backer, [Essay Title], Law at the End of the Day, ([Essay Posting Date]) available at [http address].

The author holds a faculty appointment at Pennsylvania State University. Notice is hereby given that irrespective of that appointment, this blog serves as a purely personal enterprise created to serve as an independent site focusing on issues of general concern to the public. The views and opinions expressed here are those of its author. This site is neither affiliated with nor does it in any way state, reflect, or represent the views of Pennsylvania State University or any of its entities, units or affiliates.

Globalization Law and Policy Series from Ashgate Publishing

About the Series:

Globalization: Law and Policy will include an integrated body
of scholarship that critically addresses key issues and theoretical debates in comparative and transnational law. Volumes in the series will focus on the consequential effects of globalization, including emerging frameworks and processes for the internationalization, legal harmonization, juridification and democratization of law among increasingly connected political, economic, religious, cultural, ethnic and other functionally differentiated governance communities. This series is intended as a resource for scholars, students, policy makers and civil society actors, and will include a balance of theoretical and policy studies in single-authored volumes and collections of original essays.

An interview with the Series Editor

Queries and book proposals may be directed to:
Larry Catá Backer
W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar
and Professor of Law, Professor of International Affairs
Pennsylvania State University
239 Lewis Katz Building
University Park, PA 16802
email: lcb911@gmail.com

or

Alison Kirk, Publisher
Ashgate Publishing Limited
Wey Court East
Union Road
Farnham
Surrey
GU9 7PT, United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)1252 736600
Fax: +44 (0)1252 736736
email: akirk@ashgatepublishing.com