Header

Suche
Digital Society Initiative

Digital Trade in the Age of AI: Rebalancing Openness and Control

The workshop explores how AI is reshaping the foundations of digital trade and governance. Digital trade provisions have expanded rapidly through bilateral and regional agreements, yet many of these frameworks were negotiated before the rise of AI and reflect an earlier, more cooperative vision of the digital economy.
As AI development accelerates, and as geopolitical tensions and calls for digital sovereignty intensify, existing digital trade rules face new pressure. 

Key themes include the treatment of AI’s constitutive elements in trade agreements, divergent sovereignty agendas across major actors such as the EU, US and China, and the balance between digital trade objectives and global AI governance.

The main organiser is DSI Fellow Dr. Maria Vasquez Callo-Müller, who has advised international organizations including the World Economic Forum, the APEC Policy Support Unit, and UNESCAP on digital trade policy, and Prof. Dr. Mira Burri from the University of Lucerne Faculty of Law.

The workshop will be followed by an Apèro. Non-speaking participants who are interested are welcome to join. Please register in advance as there is a limited number of spaces.

 


When / Wann: June 24, 2026, 16:00 - 18:30

Where / Wo: University of Zurich Main Building Senate Room (KOL-E-13 EV), Rämistrasse 71, Zurich

Language / Sprache:  English

Registration / Anmeldung: Link

Contact / Kontakt: ai-law@dsi.uzh.ch

Organisation: University of Zurich (DSI Community AI & Law) & University of Lucerne

 

Program

16:15 Introduction
1st Panel Geopolitical background for reconsidering digital trade in the age of AI
  • Marília Maciel, Director of Digital Commerce and Economic Security, DIPLO
  • Raffaela Kunz, SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Zurich
  • Mireia Paulo, Head of Management of the Centre for EU-Asia Connectivity (CEAC), Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, Lecturer and Researcher at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
2nd Panel Reassessment of digital trade core disciplines in the age of AI
  • Mira Burri, Professor of International Economic and Internet Law, University of Lucerne
  • María Vásquez Callo-Müller, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Lucerne
  • Marta Soprana, University of Lucerne and LSE Ideas
18:00 Concluding Remarks & Apero

 

Back to event overview

Weiterführende Informationen

Foto- & Filmaufnahmen

Bei Veranstaltungen der Digital Society Initiative (DSI) können Foto- und/oder Videoaufnahmen gemacht werden. Diese werden auf den Kommunikationskanälen der DSI und/oder der Universität Zürich (UZH) verwendet.

Photos & Filming

Photographs and/or videos may be taken at events organized by the Digital Society Initiative (DSI). The recordings will be used on the communication channels of the DSI and/or the University of Zurich (UZH).