Artificial intelligence is transforming public administration across Europe, creating new opportunities while raising fundamental questions about transparency, accountability and the role of human decision-making. Addressing these questions was at the heart of a 4EU+ mini-grant collaboration, which has now resulted in a new special issue exploring these challenges from multiple legal perspectives.
Researchers from several European universities joined forces through Charles University 4EU+ mini-grant Europe: A Laboratory of a Digital State. Their collaboration reached an important milestone with the international round table The Swan Song of Anthropocentric Governance in Europe, held in Prague in November 2025. The newly published special issue of CERIDAP brings together revised and expanded versions of the papers presented during the event.
Read the publication
Explore the full collection of open-access articles covering topics from automated decision-making and financial market supervision to healthcare, migration, construction permitting and space law.
We asked Professor Jakub Handrlica, project lead from Charles University, to reflect on the significance of the publication and the collaboration behind it.
Artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly. From your perspective, what are the biggest challenges currently facing public administration?
"The biggest challenge is to be open to a paradigm shift. The discussion is not about whether AI will or will not become part of public administration. Here the answer is unequivocal – yes. It is a fact that artificial intelligence will radically transform public administration over the next decade. This is not only related to the new settings of administrative processes, judicial review and the civil service regime. It is wrong to think that AI will not affect public administration, or that it will represent just an ephemeral hiatus. This would exclude the Czech Republic from the community of advanced European states in which AI will be an integral part of administrative processes."
What surprised you most during the discussions with colleagues from different European countries?
"During our roundtable “The Swan Song of Anthropocentric Administration in Europe”, the presentation of the new book by Milanese professor of administrative law Diana Galetta “Artificial Intelligence and Public Administration: A Journey” (Edizione Scientifica, 2025) was held at the Prague Faculty of Law. It was followed by a content-rich discussion, which addressed the following question: Is artificial intelligence something completely new, or is it just another continuation of a series of technological innovations that public administration has successfully received in the past? In this context, it should be noted that artificial intelligence does not replace humans; it only replaces their work. Most academics participating in our discussion expressed the opinion that artificial intelligence does not have the potential to change the “DNA” of public administration. However, if set up correctly, it can make it more efficient, faster and cheaper. This should also be the goal of the Czech Republic."
How do you see this collaboration developing in the future?
"The Europe: A Laboratory of a Digital State project was not our first joint project with academics from Milan, Geneva and Copenhagen within the 4EU+ European University Alliance. We have already worked on two projects together in the past – on regulatory sandboxes and on smart cities. Currently, together with other participants in our project, we are also jointly working on the project “ADMAIES - La mejora de las decisiones administrativas mediante el uso de IA, la experimentation y los sandboxes: especial atención al ámpítuto urbano y de vivienda”, supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Kingdom of Spain. Soon, we plan to follow up on these projects with a larger European project within one of the ERC calls."
What do you consider the most valuable outcome of this 4EU+ collaboration?
"I consider the most significant result of our cooperation to be the fact that, within the framework of our projects, we have managed to inspire many young colleagues at all partner universities for modern administrative law. In our department, these are mainly our doctoral students who, within the framework of our 4EU+ projects, have completed several stimulating internships at our partner universities abroad. However, it is also a great result that master's students who work as auxiliary scientific staff in our department – Lucie Vonásková, Natálie Holubová, Milada Matoušková, Petr Novák and Ondřej Skulina – have also joined cooperation with foreign universities. Establishing contacts and academic friendships, exchanging information and experiences and visiting each other is the path to what 4EU+ sets as its goal – to create one European university. "