Nathalie A. Smuha

Overview

Nathalie A. Smuha is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching focus on the intersection of law, philosophy and technology, with particular attention to the impact of digital technologies on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. 

She is the author of Algorithmic Rule By Law: How Algorithmic Regulation in the Public Sector Erodes the Rule of Law, and the editor of the Cambridge Handbook on the Law, Ethics and Policy of Artificial Intelligence (both published with Cambridge University Press, 2025). 

Previously, she was Assistant Professor and FWO Postdoctoral Fellow at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law, and the academic coordinator of the KU Leuven Summer School on the Law, Ethics, and Policy of AI. She has also taken up Adjunct Professorships at NYU School of Law and Columbia Law School, and she held visiting positions at the University of Oxford, the University of Chicago and the University of Birmingham. 

Besides her academic activities, Professor Smuha regularly advises governments and international organizations on AI policy and regulation. She coordinated the work of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI and acted as a scientific expert in the Council of Europe’s (Ad Hoc) Committee on AI. She also assisted the OECD and UNESCO with the development of AI policy.

Prior to her academic turn, Professor Smuha practiced law as a member of the Brussels and the New York Bar. She holds BA and MA degrees in both law and philosophy from KU Leuven, a PhD in law from KU Leuven, and an LL.M. from the University of Chicago.