Computational legal research
Applies text analysis to legislation, legal doctrine, and case law to retrieve information and uncover patterns that would be difficult to identify through a close reading alone.
Computational law · Legal informatics · Law and AI
Christof Koolen
Visiting Professor and FWO Postdoctoral Researcher
The Centre for IT & IP Law, KU Leuven (Belgium)
I study how artificial intelligence can improve access to legal information while ensuring that AI systems remain transparent, reliable and accountable. My work brings together computational legal research, legal information retrieval and the evaluation of AI systems in a legal setting.
I am always keen to collaborate with researchers from law, computer science and social sciences. If you think our interests overlap, feel free to get in touch!
01
About
I work at the KU Leuven’s Centre for IT & IP Law in Belgium as an FWO postdoctoral researcher and I also teach Introduction to AI Technologies as a Visiting Professor in the Advanced Master of Laws program. My current research asks a fairly timely question: what can natural language processing add to the way legal scholars conduct research? As such, I study how computational methods can be used to work with large bodies of legal text, detect patterns, and test questions that are otherwise difficult to answer.
A good deal of my work moves back and forth between law and computer science. That means combining legal analysis with data and code (while keeping an eye on what computational methods cannot tell us). I am particularly interested in methods that can contribute to the legal domain in a broad sense.
My teaching covers both the technical foundations of artificial intelligence as well as the legal framework that is developing around it. I am also responsible for coordinating IusStart, an alternative master’s thesis track in which students provide legal advice to start-ups under the guidance of a law firm.
My past projects range from conventional academic work, including the publication of a monograph with Oxford University Press, to more experimental work, such as creating a pipeline to automatically match master’s thesis topics with the most suitable day-to-day supervisors.
02
Research
My current research looks at how computational methods can support the field of law without losing sight of the human dimension.
Legal informatics
Looks at how legal information is organized in digital systems and how those systems can make legal sources easier to find and use for lawyers, researchers, and the public.
Artificial intelligence and law
Studies how machine learning systems and language models perform in legal work, with particular attention paid to their limits and the guardrails needed when they are used.
03
Selected publications
Books
Protecting EU Consumers in Internet of Things Ecosystems: The Intersection Between Consumer, Competition, and Data
Oxford University Press
@book{koolen_2025_protecting,
title = {Protecting {EU} {Consumers} in {Internet} of {Things} {Ecosystems}: {The} {Intersection} between {Consumer}, {Competition}, and {Data}},
author = {Koolen, Christof},
year = {2025},
publisher = {Oxford University Press},
pagetotal = {482},
isbn = {978-0-19-897258-7 978-0-19-897256-3},
doi = {10.1093/9780198972563.001.0001},
abstract = {The number of devices being connected to the internet is growing rapidly. This trend, referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT), reflects the gradual transformation of everyday objects into smart devices. These smart devices are capable of collecting data from their surroundings and sharing those data over the internet. As a result, the development of the IoT raises extensive legal questions from a consumer protection perspective. First, the functionality of smart devices challenges consumer autonomy and the average consumer’s ability to make well-informed transactional decisions. Second, concerns remain about consumer choice, as switching between products or brands is difficult due to interoperability limitations. Third, consumer privacy is threatened by the data-driven nature of the IoT. Protecting EU Consumers in Internet of Things Ecosystems explores solutions to these challenges by critically analyzing the interplay between EU consumer law, EU competition law, and EU data privacy law, aiming to balance innovation and consumer protection in IoT ecosystems. At a time when society must question how the benefits of IoT can be harnessed for the greater good—rather than posing a threat to consumers, businesses, and governments—this volume offers valuable insights for academics, policymakers, businesses, and anyone interested in understanding the impact of technology on our daily lives.},
language = {en},
note = {https://academic.oup.com/book/61253},
}Christof Koolen, Protecting EU Consumers in Internet of Things Ecosystems: The Intersection between Consumer, Competition, and Data, (Oxford University Press 2025) 482
Articles and book chapters
Genesis of the Artificial Intelligence Act: When AI Beats the Imitation Game
AI Governance and Liability in Europe: A Primer (Wolters Kluwer) 81–115
@incollection{koolen_2025_genesis,
title = {Genesis of the {Artificial} {Intelligence} {Act}: {When} {AI} {Beats} the {Imitation} {Game}},
author = {Koolen, Christof},
editor = {Pehlivan, Ceyhun Necati and Forgó, Nikolaus and Valcke, Peggy},
booktitle = {{AI} {Governance} and {Liability} in {Europe}: {A} {Primer}},
publisher = {Wolters Kluwer},
year = {2025},
pages = {81--115}
}Christof Koolen, ‘Genesis of the Artificial Intelligence Act: When AI Beats the Imitation Game’ in Ceyhun Necati Pehlivan, Nikolaus Forgó and Peggy Valcke (eds), AI Governance and Liability in Europe: A Primer (Wolters Kluwer 2025) 81–115
Generative AI, Education, and Copyright Law: An Empirical Study of Policymaking in UK Universities
46(6) European Intellectual Property Review 346–360
@article{notoladiega_2024_genai,
author = {Noto La Diega, Guido and Koolen, Christof},
title = {Generative AI, Education, and Copyright Law: An Empirical Study of Policymaking in UK Universities},
journal = {European Intellectual Property Review},
publisher = {Sweet & Maxwell},
year = {2024},
volume = {46},
number = {6},
pages = {346--360}
}Guido Noto La Diega and Christof Koolen, ‘Generative AI, Education, and Copyright Law: An Empirical Study of Policymaking in UK Universities’ (2024) 46(6) European Intellectual Property Review 346–360
Consumer Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Breaking Down the Silo Mentality Between Consumer, Competition, and Data
31(2/3) European Review of Private Law 427–468
@article{koolen_2023_consumer-competition-data,
author = {Koolen, Christof},
title = {Consumer Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Breaking Down the Silo Mentality Between Consumer, Competition, and Data},
journal = {European Review of Private Law},
publisher = {Wolters Kluwer},
year = {2023},
volume = {31},
number = {2/3},
pages = {427--468},
doi = {10.54648/ERPL2023018},
}Christof Koolen, ‘Consumer Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Breaking Down the Silo Mentality Between Consumer, Competition, and Data’ (2023) 31(2/3) European Review of Private Law 427–468