2nd South Asian Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence & Law (SARAIL) 2026 [Virtual, Sep 12-13; ISBN Edited Volume]

The 2nd South Asian Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence & Law (SARAIL), 2026 is the flagship international AI-law dialogue organised under the 3rd South Asian Global Intellectual Property Summit, 2026 by the Centre for Development of Intellectual Property and Research (CDIPR), Naovina Development of Intellectual Property and Research Foundation, in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

CDIPR describes itself as India's first non-governmental research organisation dedicated to intellectual property rights, and is registered as a Section 8 non-profit company under the Companies Act, 2013, with offices at Wadhwa Complex, Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi and at Sri Nagar Colony, Tetri Toli, Namkum, Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Building on the inaugural 2025 edition, which drew 235 participants and academic delegations from 67 countries, the 2026 Roundtable moves past the question of whether AI should be regulated and asks a more consequential one: how should societies design laws and institutions that enable AI innovation while protecting rights, ensuring accountability and advancing inclusive development? It brings together legal scholars, policymakers, technology professionals, researchers, economists, entrepreneurs, civil society representatives, students and innovators from South Asia and across the world.

• Facilitate a global South Asian dialogue on AI regulation, rights, innovation and responsible governance.
• Examine the evolving intersections of artificial intelligence, law, intellectual property and emerging technologies.
• Explore comparative South Asian and global approaches to AI governance, accountability, safety and digital rights.
• Build academic, policy, industry and technology bridges to shape inclusive and future-ready AI governance frameworks.
• Contribute to international scholarship and policy discourse by amplifying South Asian and Global South perspectives on AI, law and governance.

The Roundtable will be held on 12-13 September 2026 in virtual mode, so that participants can join from any geography. Selected authors will present their papers in live sessions before an international audience of scholars, professionals, industry leaders and policy experts.

Papers are invited under the following eight thematic tracks.

1. AI Regulation & Emerging Legal Architectures

• AI legislation and regulatory developments across South Asia
• Comparative analysis of emerging national AI laws
• EU AI Act and its implications for Global South jurisdictions
• OECD AI Principles and international regulatory convergence
• UNESCO frameworks and responsible AI governance
• Risk-based, rights-based and innovation-based regulatory models
• Regulatory sandboxes for artificial intelligence
• Soft law, standards and technical regulation
• AI regulatory fragmentation and the need for interoperability
• Future directions for South Asian AI governance

2. Generative AI, Copyright & Intellectual Property

• Copyright protection of AI-generated and AI-assisted works
• Copyrightability of AI-generated outputs
• Training data, text-and-data mining and copyright
• Generative AI and authorship
• AI-assisted inventions and patent law
• Patent inventorship and autonomous AI systems
• AI and trade secret protection
• Dataset ownership and intellectual property
• Licensing models for AI training data
• AI-generated content, attribution and provenance
• Synthetic media and rights of creators
• Future of intellectual property in the age of generative AI

3. AI, Fundamental Rights & Digital Constitutionalism

• AI and the right to privacy
• Algorithmic discrimination and equality
• AI and freedom of expression
• Automated decision-making and due process
• AI and the right to information
• Facial recognition and biometric surveillance
• Predictive policing and civil liberties
• Digital constitutionalism
• AI, democracy and electoral processes
• Human oversight and meaningful human control
• Protecting vulnerable and marginalised communities

4. AI Liability, Accountability & AI Safety

• Legal responsibility for AI-generated harm
• Developer, deployer and user liability
• Product liability and autonomous systems
• AI negligence and emerging standards of care
• Explainability and transparency obligations
• Algorithmic audits and accountability mechanisms
• AI safety and frontier AI governance
• AI incident reporting and risk management
• Human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop systems
• Insurance and compensation for AI-related harms
• Cross-border enforcement of AI regulation

5. AI, Data Governance & Digital Sovereignty

• Data protection and AI development
• AI and data minimisation
• Cross-border data flows
• Data localisation and digital sovereignty
• Public-sector data and AI
• Synthetic data and privacy
• AI training datasets and consent
• Data governance in developing economies
• Digital public infrastructure and AI
• Sovereign AI and national technological capacity
• Regional cooperation on data governance

6. AI, Labour, Economy & Development

• Generative AI and the future of work
• AI-driven automation and employment
• Algorithmic management and workplace rights
• AI and labour law
• Reskilling and workforce transformation
• AI entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems
• AI and economic inequality
• AI and inclusive development
• AI adoption by developing economies
• Intellectual property and AI-driven innovation
• AI's impact on South Asian economies

7. AI in Sectoral Governance

• AI in healthcare and medical decision-making
• AI in education and academic research
• AI in financial services and FinTech
• AI in banking and credit scoring
• AI in courts and justice systems
• AI in public administration
• AI in agriculture and climate governance
• AI in defence and national security
• AI in smart cities
• AI in scientific research and innovation

8. AI Agents, Autonomous Systems & The Next Technological Frontier

• Autonomous AI agents and legal responsibility
• Agentic AI and decision-making
• AI-to-AI interactions
• Autonomous systems and contract formation
• AI agents in commerce and financial markets
• AI and machine-to-machine governance
• Autonomous weapons and international law
• Legal personality and AI
• AI systems acting on behalf of individuals and institutions
• Governance of increasingly autonomous AI ecosystems

The Roundtable is open to legal scholars, policymakers, technology professionals, researchers, economists, entrepreneurs, civil society representatives, students and innovators from South Asia and across the world. The notification prescribes no institutional or jurisdictional restriction, and the abstract submission form asks each author to identify as Faculty, Researcher, Student or Professional.

Categories and word limits

• Research Article: 3,000 to 5,000 words
• Policy Paper / Legislative Analysis: 3,000 to 4,000 words
• Case Studies / Legal Commentaries: 2,000 to 4,000 words

Format and structure

• Font: Times New Roman
• Body text: 12pt, justified alignment
• Headings: 14pt, centre alignment; sub-headings: 13pt
• Footnotes: 10pt, left alignment
• Citation style: Bluebook 21st Edition
• Spacing: 1.5
• Language: English only

Abstract: Every submission must carry an abstract of 250-300 words (not exceeding 300 words) summarising the core ideas of the paper, with 5 keywords, and clearly indicating the research question, methodology and relevance to the Roundtable themes.

Originality: Submissions must be entirely original and unpublished. Plagiarism must not exceed 10%, and AI-generated content is not allowed. Submissions violating these guidelines will be rejected.

Co-authorship: Papers may have up to two authors.

Review process: A two-stage internal review will assess submissions. Authors may be required to revise their papers based on feedback on content, structure or formatting.

• Publication in the international edited volume titled Governing Artificial Intelligence: Law, Rights & Innovation from South Asia to the World, ISBN 978-81-998939-9-3, to be published and distributed across 15 nations with a DOI and international editorial and institutional collaboration. CDIPR states the volume is co-curated with the OECD and the Internet Governance Forum.
• International Certificate of Presentation for selected authors who present.
• Emerging Scholar Recognition for early-career researchers and students.
• Invitations for future international collaborations, conferences, sustainability initiatives and research projects.
• Highlighting of selected works through international academic networks and sustainability policy platforms.
• Opportunities to be featured in international policy briefs and the collaborative networks of the OECD and the UN Internet Governance Forum.

The official notification issued by CDIPR on 14 August 2026 prescribes no registration, submission or publication fee for SARAIL 2026, and the abstract submission form does not ask for any payment. Participation is therefore free.

Submit an abstract of 250-300 words with 5 keywords through the official Google Form linked below, by 11:59 PM IST on 30 August 2026. The form collects author and co-author details including institution, designation, email and contact number, and requires a Google sign-in because it records file uploads. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

Authors whose abstracts are selected will be notified by email on 31 August 2026 and invited to submit full papers of 3,000-5,000 words by 5 September 2026, after which selected participants must confirm attendance and complete registration by 8 September 2026.