Utrecht University’s School of Law and Moonlit launch responsible AI into legal education
The Utrecht University School of Law and Moonlit are running a pilot, integrating legal AI directly into the academic curriculum. This initiative marks a shift in how higher education handles generative AI: moving from prohibition to training.
Since the arrival of systems like ChatGPT, universities have faced challenges regarding assessment and academic integrity. Rather than banning these tools, the Utrecht University School of Law is choosing to engage with them responsibly. Through a pilot, the University is deploying Moonlit - a platform designed for grounded, verifiable legal research - to help teach students how to use AI critically.
“This pilot in our master’s thesis trajectories allows us to connect legal education more directly to practice, preparing students for a professional environment in which AI tools will play an increasingly important role", says Professor Brianne McGonigle Leyh, Director of Master’s Education at the School of Law and a a Senior Teaching Fellow at Utrecht University.
We're preparing students for a professional environment in which AI tools will play an increasingly important role.
"The goal is to stop framing AI as a threat to students and their learning and instead treat it as a professional tool that will become part of everyday practice," says Yvette Roman, AI Governance Officer Education at Utrecht University. "By embedding a proven tool like Moonlit into our courses, we can focus on education rather than policing. We are teaching students to verify, critique, and refine AI outputs - skills that are now essential in the legal labour market."
For Moonlit, this collaboration represents a critical step in aligning legal technology with educational standards. Unlike general-purpose AI, Moonlit’s platform is engineered specifically for the legal sector, and contains a highly relevant legal database that is updated daily and is complemented with AI functionality, prioritizing source transparency and reducing the risk of "hallucinations."
"We built Moonlit to bridge the gap between the efficiency of AI and the rigorous standards of the law," says Roderick Lucas (CEO at Moonlit). "By partnering with universities, we are not just providing a tool; we are co-developing a framework for how the next generation of lawyers will interact with technology. It validates our belief that the future of legal work isn't about automating judgment, but about empowering professionals with reliable, grounded intelligence."
Bridging the gap
The initiative will see Moonlit (an innovative Dutch spin-off company of UvA originally) integrated into research courses, where students will learn to treat AI outputs as a starting point rather than a final answer. The curriculum focuses on the "human in the loop" methodology, requiring students to verify citations and cross-reference generated summaries with primary legal sources provided by the platform.
This partnership ensures that academic training of the students and teachers involved mirrors the reality of modern legal practice, where AI literacy is becoming a prerequisite for success. By combining Utrecht University’s pedagogical leadership with Moonlit’s legal technology, the two parties are setting a new standard for responsible innovation in higher education.
Media contacts
Utrecht University
Yvette Roman, y.g.roman@uu.nl
Irina Mak, i.s.mak@uu.nl
Moonlit
Roderick Lucas, roderick@moonlit.ai