LMI Call for papers - Issue no. 2/2027

This Call for Papers of the Journal of Law, Market & Innovation (JLMI) concerns the second issue to be published at the end of July 2027 and is devoted to European Regulatory and Supervisory Bodies in the Digital Realm. This issue will be edited by the Editors-in-Chief of the JLMI (Riccardo de Caria and Cristina Poncibò), along with Federica Casarosa and Evangelia Psychogiopoulou as guest co-editor. You can find the call with all the details at the following link:

A NEW CONSTELLATION OF EU STATE REGULATORY AND SUPERVISORY BODIES IN THE DIGITAL REALM

The Call invites contributions on the subject of "A New Constellation of EU State Regulatory and Supervisory Bodies in the Digital Realm”.

Recent EU digital policy acts have profoundly impacted the Union’s institutional architecture. Instruments such as the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Data Governance Act and the Data Act have not only introduced far‑reaching substantive obligations, but have also generated a dense and increasingly complex constellation of state regulatory and supervisory bodies at the EU and the national level. This architecture is still under construction, prompted by the European Commission’s recent proposals for reform, including the AI Omnibus and the Digital Omnibus (affecting several EU digital laws, including the Data Act, the Data Governance Act, and the NIS 2 Directive). These initiatives explicitly seek to address concerns over fragmentation, regulatory overlap, and enforcement coherence, while recalibrating the roles and powers of existing and newly established authorities.
Against this evolving background, EU digital regulation increasingly relies on multi‑level, networked and hybrid governance models that combine EU agencies, national competent authorities, coordination bodies and the European Commission itself acting as regulator, supervisor or meta‑regulator. These developments raise foundational questions about institutional design, independence, accountability, and effectiveness, as well as the capacity of the emerging institutional constellation to jointly pursue internal market objectives, security imperatives, innovation goals, and the protection of fundamental rights and the Union’s values. This special issue, therefore, invites critical reflection on how successive waves of digital legislation and reform are reshaping not only substantive law but also the very structure of regulatory authority in the EU’s digital realm.
This special issue seeks to examine how EU digital regulation is transforming the landscape of regulatory and supervisory authorities through the creation of new bodies, the expansion of existing mandates, and the reconfiguration of relationships among EU institutions, authorities and bodies involved, and national authorities. Particular attention will be paid to the institutional design, missions and practical operation of these regulators and supervisory authorities, as well as to the normative choices embedded in multi-level and multi-actor governance structures. The authors may also explore the extent to which the emerging regulatory and supervisory architectures embody broader constitutional and policy objectives of the Union, including market integration, innovation, security, democracy, the rule of law, and the protection of fundamental rights. They are further invited to critically assess whether emerging governance models enhance regulatory effectiveness and legitimacy, or introduce new risks of fragmentation and accountability gaps. Contributions can also address the evolving interactions among different regulatory regimes in the digital realm, with a focus on coordination mechanisms, information sharing, joint enforcement, and conflict resolution among authorities operating across policy silos.
We invite submissions that analyse, inter alia, the following overarching themes:
- Institutional design and authority construction: the legal nature, independence, composition and competences of newly established or reconfigured authorities in EU digital law; the balance between centralisation and decentralisation; and the role of the European Commission.
- Multi-level governance and coordination: the interaction between EU-level regulators, supervisors, coordinating bodies and national competent authorities; and the implications of mandates’ design for enforcement consistency and legal certainty.
- Values, risk and governance models: how risk-based regulatory approaches translate into institutional arrangements; the incorporation of Union values into regulatory practice; and the capacity of governance structures to balance innovation, market-building and rights protection.
Contributions may adopt doctrinal, comparative, theoretical or empirical approaches. The overall objective is to advance understanding of how institutional choices shape the effectiveness, legitimacy and coherence of EU digital regulation in an increasingly interconnected and extraterritorial digital environment.
Submissions that bridge regulatory domains or offer forward-looking proposals for institutional design and coordination are particularly welcome.

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The Editorial Board will select articles based on the quality of research and writing, diversity, and relevance of the topic. The novelty of the academic contribution is also an essential requirement.

Prospective articles should be submitted in the form of full papers to submissions.jlmi@iuse.it by 1 December 2026. Submissions will undergo a preliminary selection process by the editorial board: authors will be notified of the outcome of this preliminary selection by 31 January 2027. Selected articles will then undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process.

Typically, the JLMI accepts contributions within the range of 10.000-15.000 words, including footnotes, but both shorter and longer articles will be considered. We ask prospective authors to kindly make sure that their submission conforms to the JLMI Code of Ethics and Authors’ guidelines (also with regard to disclosure of simultaneous submission to other journals: authors are required to disclose if they have submitted their article elsewhere, both in case of negative and pending reviews, and promptly update the editorial board of any changes in this regard, throughout the whole editorial process with the JLMI).

We also ask authors to kindly follow the JLMI style guide, and abide by the OSCOLA citation standard.

For further information, or for consultation on a potential submission, please email us at editors.jlmi@iuse.it.