Funding of justice has significant consequences for the enforcement of rights and impacts directly on access to justice and the right to a fair trial as constitutional rights. Access to justice in turn essentially impacts on the effective enjoyment of any other constitutional right, since having the actual means to access a court in case of a potential breach strengthens that right. Public funding, such as legal aid, has come under pressure due to the reality of financial austerity measures and the tightening public budgets in many countries. This has contributed to privatization and marketisation of funding in ever more jurisdictions. Private forms of funding include inter alia litigation insurance, third-party litigation finance and crowdfunding, as well as different forms of assigning or selling claims. As public funding is in decline and as market liberalization in the field of justice increases, crucial questions related to the rule of law, access to justice and social and economic development, in the intersection between states, citizens and business are raised. For example, potential questions of conflict of interest and how to ensure a basic level of equality of access to funding, whilst at the same time protecting market freedom. Some of the contributions in the volume deal with the consequences of privatization of funding of justice on access to justice from a general, principled and theoretical perspective. Other contributions deal with specific regulatory developments or issues at the EU level, alternatively at the local level in specific jurisdictions. Further contributions deal with crucial issues of funding of justice in environmental matters, that are increasingly relevant and topical in practice.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to radically transform our society. It may lead to a massive increase in the capabilities of humankind and allow us to address some of our most intractable challenges. It may also entail profound disruption to structures and processes that have sustained our society over centuries. These developments present a unique challenge to the socio-economic constitutional arrangements which govern our world at national, regional and international level. The deployment of increasingly powerful AI systems, able to function with increasing degree of autonomy, has led to concerns over loss of human control of important societal processes, over the disruption of existing economic, social and legal relationships, and over the empowerment of some societal actors at the expense of others, together with the entrenchment of situations of domination or discrimination. It has also made increasingly clear how tremendous the potential benefits, that these technologies may bring, are to those who successfully develop and deploy them. There is therefore great pressure on governments, international institutions, public authorities, civil society organisations, industry bodies and individual firms to introduce or adapt mechanisms and structures that will avoid the potentially negative outcomes of AI and achieve the positive ones. These mechanisms and structures, which have been given the umbrella term ‘AI governance’, cover a wide range of approaches, from individual firms introducing ethical principles which they volunteer to abide by, to the European Union legislating an AI Act, which will prohibit certain types of AI applications and impose binding obligations on AI developers and deployers. The fast pace of innovation in the development of AI technologies is mirrored by the fast pace of development of the emerging field of AI governance, where traditional legislation by public bodies is complemented with more innovative approaches, such ashybrid and adaptive governance, ethical alignment, governance by design and the creation of regulatory sandboxes. The chapter “AI and Sensitive Personal Data Under the Law Enforcement Directive: Between Operational Efficiency and Legal Necessity” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Each year, Stockholm is the arbitration seat of choice for numerous parties endeavouring to resolve international disputes. It is the second most used venue for investment disputes, and it is often the venue for disputes arising from the Energy Charter Treaty. This annual publication, launched under the auspices of the Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law, is designed to meet the information needs of arbitration practitioners and parties from all over the world. The present edition’s topics include: arbitration and EU sanctions against Russia; the ins and outs of arbitrator selection; the divide between lawful and unlawful expropriation in investment arbitration; tactical misuse of GDPR in arbitration; court-assisted preservation of evidence; and the distinction between jurisdiction and admissibility. The Yearbook provides both perspective and detailed analyses that will be welcomed by arbitration practitioners, counsel and judges deciding arbitration cases. It will also provide valuable insights for arbitration academics, in-house counsel at multinational companies and arbitral institutions worldwide.

This incisive Research Handbook provides valuable insights into the various methodological approaches to Private International Law from regulatory and educational perspectives. It comprehensively unpacks central themes in the field including international jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement, and scrupulously analyses core debates whilst addressing legislative and policy issues.