Call for Papers
LCIC Workshop: Legally Compliant Intelligent Chatbots – The Challenge of Persuasion and Manipulation
Organised by: Giovanni Sartor & Giuseppe Contissa
Location: International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law 2025, Chicago, IL, US
Date: June 16 or 20, 2025 (exact to be confirmed soon)
Workshop Overview
With the growing deployment of intelligent chatbots and other conversational AI tools in diverse domains, understanding how to design systems that comply with ethical and legal standards is of paramount importance. Conversational systems often engage in persuasive interactions for beneficial purposes such as customer service, mental health support, and e-commerce. Thus, distinguishing legitimate persuasion from manipulative practices remains a significant challenge, particularly when applying computable methods to ensure compliance.
This workshop, supported by the ERC Advanced Grant Project CompuLaw and organised by the European University Institute, focuses on developing methodologies to create legally compliant chatbot systems. It seeks to explore logic-based models, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs) to address the challenges of ethically permissible persuasion in intelligent chatbots.
Topics of Interest
We invite researchers and practitioners to submit papers on the following (but not limited to) topics:
- Ethical, legal, and social frameworks distinguishing persuasion from manipulation in chatbot interactions.
- Models of persuasion in argumentation theory and formal argumentation.
- Computable methods for ensuring ethical persuasion (logic-based approaches, argumentative systems, machine learning, NLP, and LLM-based systems).
- Empirical studies analyzing chatbot-user interactions to identify and mitigate risks of manipulation.
- Case studies showcasing the deployment of legally compliant chatbots in domains such as e-commerce, data exchange, and healthcare.
Goals and Objectives
The workshop aims to:
- Define legitimate persuasion versus unfair manipulation based on legal, ethical, and social norms.
- Explore computable models (logic-based, machine learning, and LLMs) for ethical persuasion.
- Discuss challenges and solutions in different application domains.
- Foster cross-disciplinary collaboration among philosophers, lawyers, linguists, and computer scientists.
Submission Details
We invite the submission of long (up to 15 pages) and short papers (up to 8 pages) that address theoretical, technical, and empirical aspects of legally compliant chatbots. Submissions will be peer-reviewed and evaluated based on relevance, innovation, and potential contributions to the workshop discussions.
- Submission Platform: EasyChair (link to be provided soon)
- Key Deadlines:
- Paper Submission Deadline: April 15, 2025
- Notification of Acceptance: May 15, 2025
- Camera-Ready Submission Deadline: June 1, 2025
Accepted papers will be presented in the workshop and will be included in the workshop proceedings.
Program Committee
The workshop will be organized by leading experts in AI, law, and ethics, including:
- Giovanni Sartor (University of Bologna, European University Institute)
- Giuseppe Contissa (University of Bologna, European University Institute)
Additional committee members include:
- Leila Amgoud, University of Toulouse
- Katie Atkinson, University of Liverpool
- Gregory Bonnet, Caen University
- Roberta Calegari, University of Bologna
- Cristiano Castelfranchi, University Siena
- Natali Helberger, University of Amsterdam
- Andreas Herzig, University of Toulouse
- Emiliano Lorini, University of Toulouse
- Hans Micklitz, European University Institute
- Henry Prakken, Utrecht University
- Antonino Rotolo, University of Bologna
- Stefan Sarkadi, King’s College London
- Francesca Toni, Imperial College London
Contact Information
For inquiries about the organisation, please contact:
We look forward to receiving your submissions and welcoming you to the Workshop on Legally Compliant Intelligent Chatbots at ICAIL 2025!
