To make the law more comprehensible, accessible and practically applicable for citizens, small and medium-sized enterprises, and public authorities. This is the aim of the European Legal Design Action (ELDA) research network, of which the Czech Law and Advanced Technologies Research Institute (CLAiR) at the Faculty of Law, Palacký University is a part. The four-year pan-European research partnership will be funded by the European Union.
The ELDA network brings together legal experts, designers, technologists, policymakers, representatives of the business sector and academics from more than thirty countries. The participation of the Olomouc Faculty of Law is being co-ordinated by Ondrej Hamuľák, head of the CLAiR institute, who has also been appointed as the Czech Republic’s representative on the ELDA Management Committee. Work on the project will begin this September and conclude in September 2030.
“For us, ELDA is a natural extension of CLAiR’s research focus. We have long been dedicated to the intersection of law and technology, and legal design is an area where these topics converge in a very concrete, practical way. It is not just about theory – it is about how to draft laws and contracts so that people actually understand them and can follow them,” said Ondrej Hamuľák, emphasising the uniqueness of the project. “Our four-year involvement in a network of thirty countries opens up opportunities that no national project could offer on its own: a shared European platform for research, the exchange of experience and a real impact on legislative practice. I am delighted that CLAiR and the Olomouc Faculty have been part of this from the very beginning.”
ELDA builds on the Better Regulation and REFIT agendas and utilises the tools of legal design, plain language and artificial intelligence. The work will be organised into five working groups covering the theoretical foundations of the field, improving legislative communication, contractual practice, digital tools and the dissemination of results. Strategic management and coordination of cooperation between the participating countries will be ensured by the aforementioned Management Committee.
The main proposer of the ELDA initiative was Ebru Metin, an expert from Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. The project will be funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology programme using European Union funds.
CLAiR is a specialised research centre at the Faculty of Law, Palacký University, focusing on the intersections of law with advanced technologies, artificial intelligence and regulatory innovations. The institute, which was established last year and is headed by Ondrej Hamuľák, appointed by the Dean, coordinates a new doctoral programme in law and digital technologies. Through this programme, the Faculty is involved in the European Network on Digitalisation and E-governance. Researchers at CLAiR are currently working on several projects funded under both international and national grant schemes.