The Tilburg Law and Economics Center has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. For that purpose, we organized a great and very well-received conference and I gave an interview, looking back and forward. We also published TILEC’s annual report 2023 about acitivities in the last year. All this shows that and how TILEC is alive and kicking, both in the academic and in the policy sphere: 25 published journal articles, 17 book chapters, 2 policy reports, 21 TILEC Discussion Papers and 31 organized events, which are the backbone of the institute, document that TILEC’s 46 members and our network of 53 extramural fellows are not sitting idle.

Moreover, given the size of the institute, it is very remarkable that TILEC ranks in the top-10 of all Economics Departments & Research Centers globally and in the top-10 of International (read: non-US) Law Schools, measured by download statistics of research papers measured by the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). It is the only organization on the planet showing up on both of these lists, which documents the academic footprint we jointly have in the field of Law & Economics.

This footprint is complemented by more anecdotal evidence about the policy and societal impact that several TILEC researchers have, which has affected decisions at the European Court of Justice and the US Supreme Court, and legislative initiatives such as the EU’s Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act. We are especially happy that collaboration with the ACM is in the process of being intensified, which is also documented in a short video published on the TILEC website.

Summarizing, the world is changing around us, especially in the realm of technology, where AI is coming with a vengeance and raising gigantic questions that public authorities have to deal with. TILEC’s research program on the Governance of Economic Activity in the Digital Age will be adjusting along the way. TILEC researchers working on competition & regulation, institutions & governance, and standards & innovation stand ready to support them. This is an invitation.