Digital Constitutionalism 2.0: A Disruptive Governance Framework for European Artificial-Intelligence Regulation Beyond the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act

Abstract

Abstract

This paper takes a look at the EU’s project of digital constitutionalism amid the governance puzzles posed by AI. The Union’s present formula (anchored in proportionality, state‑centric rules, and static risk boxes) struggles to keep pace with AI’s fast‑moving, opaque, and deeply political harms. Threats such as electoral manipulation, vanishing explainability, the hollowing out of the GDPR’s Right to be Forgotten, and ever‑widening surveillance risks are already testing the system’s seams. Through a systematic review, the analysis exposes structural weak spots. It then sizes up the main reform options, the EU AI Act and others, marking both their promise and their blind corners. Synthesizing those findings, the paper sketches a “Universal AI Regulation Model (UARM)”, an example of a polycentric framework that couples dynamic socio‑political impact tests with prophylactic bans on high‑risk uses, algorithmic restitution, and innovation‑friendly safe harbors. By foregrounding democratic resilience, transparency, and adaptability, the UARM aims to square AI’s disruptive power with the EU’s core commitments to human fundamental rights, the rule of law, and digital sovereignty. The conclusion is blunt: only agile, context‑aware regulation will safeguard Europe’s constitutional ethos in the algorithmic age.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence Regulation; Digital Constitutionalism; Fundamental Rights; EU Governance; Algorithmic Accountability; GDPR; AI Ethics; Surveillance Technologies; Regulatory Frameworks; Democratic Resilience; Risk Assessment.