Date: 4 November 2026
Time: 10:00-11:45
Venue: Institute for Futures Studies, Holländargatan 13 in Stockholm or online
Research seminar with Johannes Himmelreich, Associate Professor in the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Senior Research Associate in the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, and affiliated faculty in the iSchool and the philosophy department. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Register here (link)
Abstract
Modernity has never been kind to neat ideas about constitutional order. The world of global commerce and social media is not that of Locke, Madison, and Montesquieu. Now artificial intelligence further threatens cherished constitutional principles, above all the separation of powers.
In this talk, I identify three ways in which AI shifts power. Each of these shifts threatens the separation of powers. First, AI shifts control to the apex of organizations. Where decisions used to be distributed, AI instead centralizes power in the hands of those few who can steer the system. Second, AI shifts influence from the legislative to the executive branch. AI deployment turns on technical choices that legislatures can’t anticipate. And AI raises unanticipated questions that demand a fast regulatory response. Third, AI bundles distinct functions of law. The same model is drafting, applying, and adjudicating the law.
Each of these developments extends, into the near future, a line that history has long been drawing. Still, I will try to sketch what, if anything, could be done.
