On September 17, 2025, the first day of the international professional conference Bratislava Legal Forum 2025 began at the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University Bratislava (hereinafter referred to as "Faculty of Law, Comenius University Bratislava"). The first day of the conference, which will continue until September 19, 2025, began with a plenary session with the central theme "Digitalization of law and security in the digital environment". Every year, the conference brings together important academics, experts from practice, representatives of the public administration and the diplomatic corps. The plenary session was held in the historic Hall of the Comenius University Bratislava, with discussions taking place in Slovak, Czech, English, Polish and Hungarian, with simultaneous interpretation provided for foreign guests.
The event is financed by the European Union as part of the NextGenerationEU initiative, the main professional partner of the conference is the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and the media partner is TA3 television. The general partners of the Bratislava Law Forum 2025 include the National Security Office of the Slovak Republic, the Faculty of Law, Comenius University Bratislava Alumni Club, Slovenská sporiteľňa, Bratislava Law Review, Wolters Kluwer, the European Law Students' Association (ELSA) and the St. Nicholas. The plenary session took place within the project of the Competence Centre for the Regulation of Cybersecurity, Privacy Protection and Cybercrime (CUSEC).
The ceremonial opening of the plenary session belonged to representatives of the academic community, when the participants were welcomed by prof. JUDr. Marek Števček, DrSc., rector of the Comenius University Bratislava, who emphasized the importance of digitization for legal science and practice and the need for a systematic approach to cybersecurity issues. His words were followed up by prof. JUDr. Eduard Burda, PhD., dean of Faculty of Law, Comenius University Bratislava, who pointed out the need to support professional discussion and education in the field of information technology law and digital regulation. Important guests from the sphere of public administration and diplomacy also spoke - Ing. Juraj Blanár, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, who appreciated the support of events that emphasize the need to connect law and digital security in both the European and global context, Mgr. Matúš Šutaj Eštok, Minister of the Interior of the Slovak Republic, who in his speech emphasized the key role of legal regulation in the field of cybersecurity, and Gautam A. Rana, Ambassador of the United States of America, who spoke about the importance of the joint efforts of democratic countries in strengthening cybersecurity and creating a fair legal framework for the digital environment.
The program then continued with two panel discussions, which created a platform for the exchange of experience and expertise between representatives of several countries. The first panel discussion, moderated by JUDr. Michal Rampášek from the Institute of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law, Comenius University Bratislava, focused on the transposition of the NIS2 directive and its implementation in the practice of the Vyšehrad Four countries. Speakers included Viktor Munkácsi, head of the incident management department at the Hungarian National Cyber Security Center, Marcin Domagała, head of the department of international cooperation in the field of cybersecurity from Poland, Ondřej Polák from the Czech National Office for Cyber and Information Security and Jaroslav Ďurovka, director of the National Cyber Security Center of the Slovak Republic, who presented concrete experiences and challenges associated with the application of this legislation in individual countries.
The second panel discussion moderated by JUDr. Ondrej Hamuľák, PhD. from the Institute of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law, Comenius University Bratislava, was dedicated to the global challenges of digital regulation and provided space for presentations by experts from various countries and academic environments. The panelists were Hong Dae-sik, professor of economic law at the Faculty of Law of Sogang University in Korea, Iana Kazeeva, postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Innovation and Digitization in Law in Vienna, Lilla Nóra Kiss, PhD., chief policy analyst at the Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and doc. JUDr. Matúš Mesarčík, PhD., LL.M. from the Institute of Information Technology Law and Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law, Comenius University Bratislava, who dealt with issues of digital market regulation, protection of economic competition and innovative approaches to the regulation of artificial intelligence and digital technologies.
An important part of the first day of the conference were also the first professional sections, which created space for the presentation of academic research results and professional discussion. The section on information technology law and intellectual property law, with the main theme "Regulation, cybersecurity and digitization of law", covered a wide range of topics from the risks for children in the online environment and the role of European legislation in their protection, through the ban on political ads on social media platforms and its legal implications, to issues of the regulation of automated vehicles, regulatory sandboxes under the Artificial Intelligence Act, or the criminal law overlaps of artificial intelligence. The issue of remote drivers from the point of view of criminal law, the cross-border cooperation of EU member states in securing data in criminal proceedings, as well as the application challenges of the Cyber Resilience Act were discussed.
The civil law section entitled "Current challenges and limits of civil law in connection with the advent of artificial intelligence" provided space for discussion on the legal status of artificial intelligence, on the possibilities of its use in issuing court decisions, on issues of consumer law and family law in the digital era. The children's right to privacy in the context of digital parental supervision, the use of digital technologies in the execution of decisions in matters of minors, optimal models of regulation of artificial intelligence in consumer commerce, and the review of arbitration decisions in the era of algorithms resonated among the topics discussed.
The social program of the conference offered the participants the opportunity to get to know the historical landmarks of Bratislava during a sightseeing ride on the Prešporáčik train and also provided space for informal meetings during the ceremonial reception at Hotel Devín, which took place in the evening after the end of the professional part of the program. The reception took place in a friendly atmosphere and made it possible to establish new professional and personal contacts between participants from Slovakia and abroad.
The Bratislava Legal Forum conference annually proves its status as a unique forum for the exchange of knowledge, experience and opinions within the professional public.
