Research UCALL
About our research
Technological advancements, emerging forms of crime and crime prevention, climate change, pressing geopolitical challenges, and the energy transition are all rapidly evolving societal developments with significant implications for accountability and liability. These shifts raise urgent questions regarding the adaptivity of accountability and liability law in addressing contemporary challenges.
Accountability and liability serve as mechanisms for holding actors accountable for their actions and the consequences thereof. It fulfills this role by allocating responsibility and establishing the conditions under which individuals, organizations, and institutions may be held accountable. Furthermore, it plays a normative role, providing a legal framework within which governments, international organizations, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and individuals must operate and shape their policies. As actors navigate an ever-changing societal landscape, accountability and liability must balance resilience with adaptability.
This inherent tension between stability and flexibility, particularly in the face of dynamic societal developments, lies at the core of our research program: