ERA organises a free webinar on 10 December on fundamental rights and digital tools in legal practice
ERA training: free webinar 'Fundamental Rights and EU Charter-Related Digital Tools' on 10-12-2026. Limited places with selection.
The Academy of European Law (ERA) will hold on Thursday 10 December 2026 the free webinar "Fundamental Rights and EU Charter-Related Digital Tools", an online training session from 9:00 to 13:00, in English and via the Zoom platform, framed within the European project EU Charter Training for Legal Professionals. The Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB), a collaborating entity of the project, circulated the call on 28 October 2026, and registration is completed directly on the event page on the ERA website (reference 426DT112).
What will be covered
The webinar's stated aim is to illustrate how the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union works in digital environments and how to use the main online resources to apply it in practice. By the end of the session, according to the programme, participants should understand when the Charter applies, where to find the authoritative online resources on it and how to assess the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence tools in legal practice. The format is interactive: the organisers plan space for attendees to test their knowledge, debate real uses and take away immediately applicable tools.
The programme's three thematic blocks are the Charter's fundamental rights in digital litigation, the EU's digital tools and resources on the Charter, and the use of AI tools in legal practice. The event is filed under two areas of law in the ERA catalogue: fundamental rights (including the European Convention on Human Rights) and artificial intelligence law.
Target audience and registration
The call is addressed to lawyers, judges, jurists, ministry officials, notaries and staff of NGOs and international organisations. Participation is free, but places are limited and subject to a selection procedure: the ERA states that it will respond to each applicant shortly after the application deadline, so it is advisable to register as soon as possible and not to consider the place confirmed until acceptance is received. The session will be held with the Zoom platform's enhanced security settings, according to the organisers. Event direction is led by Mareike Hoffmann, with Tatsiana Bras as coordinator.
The Charter in the digital environment: the rights at stake
The webinar's first block touches the subject matter of greatest practical reach for any European litigator. The Charter of Fundamental Rights recognises in its article 7 everyone's right "to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications", and in its article 8 the right to the protection of personal data, with the guarantees of fair processing, specified purposes, consent or another legitimate basis, access and rectification, and control by an independent authority. These are the two provisions on which much of European digital litigation is built, together with article 47, which guarantees effective judicial protection.
The preliminary question (when the Charter can be invoked before a national court) is answered by its article 51.1: the provisions of the Charter are addressed to the institutions of the Union and to the Member States "only when they are implementing Union law". The case law of the Court of Justice (case C-617/10, Åkerberg Fransson) has clarified that a national provision falls within the scope of the Charter when it falls within the scope of Union law, that is, when there is a European rule, other than the Charter itself, applicable to the case: it is not enough for the case to "touch on" a fundamental right. And article 52.1 sets the discipline of limitations: only by law, respecting the essential content of the right and subject to the principle of proportionality, for objectives of general interest recognised by the Union or for the protection of the rights of others. Mastering this framing is what distinguishes an effective fundamental rights argument from a rhetorical one.
The Charter's judicial relevance in this terrain is backed by a line of judgments every European jurist knows: from Digital Rights Ireland (C-293/12) to Schrems (C-362/14), the great data protection and surveillance cases of the last decade have been resolved with the Charter as the legality benchmark for acts of the Union. These are the precedents that frame the context in which the block devoted to the Charter in digital litigation sits.
The third block (the use of AI tools in legal practice) brings that framework down to the day-to-day of the law firm: what confidentiality, reliability and supervision risks delegating tasks to AI systems poses, and how to assess them before adoption.
Why this training matters
The thematic combination is no accident: the Charter of Fundamental Rights is increasingly the plane on which digital questions are litigated (data protection, content, surveillance, automated decisions) and, at the same time, AI tools are entering the daily work of law firms without their risks always being assessed with the same rigour as their advantages. Training that connects both fronts, free and with the ERA seal, is an uncommon opportunity for the profession. It is worth remembering that the Charter only binds Member States when they are implementing Union law, so the first practical question ("when does the Charter apply") is also the most litigated one.
The webinar adds to the offer of free legal training from official sources for lawyers that this publication has been compiling, and is framed within the transformation of continuing legal training analysed in the guide to microcredentials for lawyers.
A European Charter training project
The webinar is not an isolated action, but a piece of the European project EU Charter Training for Legal Professionals, in which the ICAB participates as a collaborating entity. The ERA, based in Trier (Germany), has for decades been the reference for the practical training of European jurists in Union law, and its catalogue files this event under the areas of fundamental rights (including the European Convention on Human Rights) and artificial intelligence law, a double label that sums up well where the fundamental rights battle is fought in Europe today. The announced methodology is that of the Academy's interactive seminars: presentations by specialists, live knowledge tests and debate on real use cases, with interactivity enabled by the Zoom platform.
For the Spanish lawyer, the added attraction is the language and the cost: ERA training in legal English, free and compatible with the working day (one morning), with the sole requirement of passing the selection procedure for limited places.
Practical details
Date: Thursday 10 December 2026. Time: 9:00 to 13:00. Format: online, via Zoom. Language: English. Price: free. Registration: the event page on era.int, with selection for limited places. Contact for the ICAB's International Training area: Mallorca, 283, 08037 Barcelona, telephone 93 496 18 80, formaciointernacional@icab.cat.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the ERA webinar cost?
It is free, but places are limited and participation is subject to a selection procedure.
In which language is it delivered?
In English, from 9:00 to 13:00 on 10 December 2026, via Zoom.
What is the ERA?
The Academy of European Law, based in Trier (Germany), an institution dedicated to training European jurists in Union law.
Sources
Get training and jobs alerts
Leave us your email and choose which alerts you want. For now we only register your subscription: we are not sending newsletters yet, and we will let you know when we start.
Fuentes
The specific data in this article come from the official sources cited.
