Lunchtime Seminar: Regulation Beyond Technology
Academic and policy thinking about law and technology tends to fall into particular grooves. We focus on the technology, both its potential to make things better and because we might constrain it through regulation to mitigate harms. The conversation often starts with a definition of some particular technology and then explores what how we might regulate that defined thing. This paper will explore the origins of this mental habit, then explore how it constrains our thinking through the example of artificial intelligence (AI) and fairness. It concludes with some thoughts on better starting places for exploring how to approach governance of our ever-changing socio-technical landscape.
Contact: cdl@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: Chairs: Associate Professor Han-Wei Liu (Deputy Director, Centre for Digital Law)
Speaker: Professor Lyria Bennett Moses (UNSW). RSVP:
Registration is now closed. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Law. Audience: Current Student. SMU Faculty & Staff.
Friday, February 13, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
SMU Yong Pung How School of Law.
Lunchtime Seminar: Institutional Trust and the Adoption of Digital Money: What Asia Can Learn from a Non-Asian Experiment
As digital money becomes increasingly widespread, countries around the world are actively considering the issuance of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) - a digital form of sovereign currency issued and regulated by central banks. With more than 130 Asian and non-Asian jurisdictions currently exploring or piloting CBDCs, understanding public attitudes toward their adoption has become a critical policy question.
This lecture presents findings from a dedicated empirical study conducted in collaboration with the Bank of Israel, examining public willingness to adopt a Digital Shekel. The study reveals a relatively high level of interest in using a CBDC among Israeli respondents. Notably, concerns over privacy - particularly state surveillance and data misuse, which feature prominently in CBDC debates in both Asian and non-Asian contexts, did not emerge as a dominant barrier. Instead, the results point to a high level of trust in the central bank.
The lecture explores the role of institutional trust as a ke…
Contact: cdl@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: Chair: Assistant Professor Nydia Remolina Leon (Deputy Director, Centre for Commercial Law in Asia)
Speaker: Professor Ruth Plato-Shinar (Director, The Center for Banking Law and Financial Regulation Netanya Academic College, Israel). RSVP:
Please email in to inquire for registration. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Law. Audience: SMU Faculty & Staff. Current Student.
Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
SMU Yong Pung How School of Law.
Building Resilient Legal Systems in the Age of AI
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global environment in which legal systems operate—not only by transforming how individuals, firms, and governments act, but also by reconfiguring the broader political economy that sustains them. Resilience in this context means ensuring that legal systems can anticipate, absorb, and adapt to technological disruption while continuing to deliver justice, maintain legitimacy, and safeguard rights. Without deliberate strategies for resilience, legal systems risk narrowing into brittle, tech-dominated structures: constrained in their options, vulnerable to capture, and unable to fulfil their core functions.
Engage with this panel that convenes experts across academia, government, and industry to explore how law can remain a stabilising force in the age of AI and to identify practical strategies for embedding resilience “by design” into legal institutions.
Contact: cdl@smu.edu.sg. Speaker Details: Chair:
Associate Professor Jason Grant Allen (Director, SMU Centre for Digital Law)
Panellists:
Associate Professor Han-Wei Liu (Deputy Director, SMU Centre for Digital Law)
Assistant Professor Dirk Hartung (SMU Yong Pung How School of Law)
Assistant Professor Rachel Phang (SMU Yong Pung How School of Law)
Anh Nguyen (PhD Researcher, University of Amsterdam)
Alex Toh (Technology Partner, Magellan Law). RSVP:
Limited seats available. Type: Talks & Forums. Subject: Law. Information Technology & Systems. Audience: Public. SMU Faculty & Staff. Current Student.
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM.
SMU Yong Pung How School of Law.
For more info visit www.ideasfestival.edu.sg.