Dr Katarzyna Łakomiec

Department of Private Law
Assistant Professor
email: k.lakomiec@inp.pan.pl

Katarzyna Łakomiec is a constitutional law scholar and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She holds a PhD in law. Her research focuses on EU digital regulation, privacy and health data protection, and the role of institutions in giving practical effect to fundamental rights and constitutional values. Her international research experience includes a Humboldt Research Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and a research affiliation with the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest.

She is the author of the monograph Konstytucyjna ochrona prywatności. Dane dotyczące zdrowia (Constitutional Protection of Privacy: Health Data) and coordinated the INP PAN team in JuLIA – Justice, Fundamental Rights and Artificial Intelligence, a project funded by the European Commission. Her academic perspective is informed by extensive institutional experience, including work as Chief Specialist at the Office of the Polish Ombudsman, Legislative Specialist at the Bureau of Research of the Chancellery of the Sejm, and Secretary of the Legal Expert Group at the Stefan Batory Foundation.

Research Interests

  • Digital constitutionalism and the value-based foundations of EU digital regulation – the transformation of EU law from a predominantly market-oriented project into a legal order increasingly shaped by fundamental rights and shared constitutional values. This area covers the relationship between the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU, fundamental rights and sector-specific digital regulation, as well as the role of digital law in shaping European society in the digital sphere.
  • Supervisory authorities and the operationalisation of fundamental rights and constitutional values – the evolving constitutional role of national supervisory authorities within multilevel systems of EU digital enforcement. The analysis focuses on how these authorities move beyond technical compliance by interpreting open-ended standards, assessing systemic risks and shaping regulatory practice through enforcement, guidance, consultation and coordination. Their position is examined in relation to legislatures, courts, the European Commission and other national authorities, with particular attention to how abstract constitutional commitments become part of everyday regulatory decision-making.
  • Platform governance, co-regulation and private power – the allocation of regulatory functions and responsibility among the state, the European Union, supervisory authorities and private actors. The analysis encompasses the implementation of public regulatory objectives through platform rules, internal procedures and risk-management mechanisms, the impact of online platforms on the exercise of fundamental rights and participation in public discourse, and the legitimacy and accountability of private regulatory power.
  • Privacy, health data governance and AI in healthcare – constitutional standards of informational privacy, the secondary use of health data, the European Health Data Space, AI in healthcare, genetic data, biobanking and biomedical research. The central problem is the relationship between individual autonomy, the public interest, scientific research and technological innovation, including the allocation of responsibility and safeguards within complex data-driven systems.

Research Projects

  • “New order” or “glorious chaos” – supervisory authorities as parts of complex systems of protection of fundamental rights and the rule of law in the digital era – research project conducted under a Humboldt Research Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg (2025-2026).
  • National coordinator of the Polish team in JuLIA – Justice, Fundamental Rights and Artificial Intelligence, a project funded by the European Commission under the Justice Programme (2024-2026).
  • Postdoctoral researcher in the project “Special-Purpose Sovereigns: Online Platforms and the New Contract Law of the Digital Era”, funded by the National Science Centre under the OPUS scheme (2021–2025).
  • Principal investigator of the project “Constitutional Aspects of the Regulation of Online Platforms”, funded by the National Science Centre under the MINIATURA scheme (2022).

Publications

Monograph

  1. Konstytucyjna ochrona prywatności. Dane dotyczące zdrowia (Constitutional Protection of Privacy: Health Data), Wolters Kluwer, Warsaw 2020.

Selected Academic Articles and Book Chapters

  1. Rola bardzo dużych platform i wyszukiwarek internetowych w ochronie zdrowia publicznego (The Role of Very Large Online Platforms and Search Engines in the Protection of Public Health), “Przegląd Prawa Medycznego” 2025, no. 4.
  2. Wtórne wykorzystanie danych w EPDZ z perspektywy konstytucyjnej: prawa jednostki oraz innowacje (Secondary Use of Data in the EHDS from a Constitutional Perspective: Individual Rights and Innovation), “Zeszyty Prawnicze BAS” 2025, no. 3 (87), pp. 92–110.
  3. Public Law and Co-regulation. The Influence of Fundamental Rights Discourse on the Standard of Privacy Protection Adopted by Online Platforms, in: F. Casarosa, M. Grochowski (eds.), Enforcing Private Regulation in the Platform Economy, Mohr Siebeck 2025.
  4. Rola Rzecznika Praw Obywatelskich w kontekście regulacji platform internetowych – wybrane aspekty prawne na tle strategii Unii Europejskiej (The Role of the Ombudsman in the Regulation of Online Platforms: Selected Legal Aspects in the Context of the European Union’s Strategy, with A. Krzywoń), in: W. Brzozowski, A. Krzywoń, M. Wiącek (eds.), W stronę równych szans. 35 lat urzędu Rzecznika Praw Obywatelskich, Wolters Kluwer 2025.
  5. Co-author of the commentary on the Digital Services Act, in: M. Grochowski (ed.), Rynek cyfrowy. Akt o usługach cyfrowych. Akt o rynkach cyfrowych. Rozporządzenie platform-to-business. Komentarz (The Digital Market. The Digital Services Act. The Digital Markets Act. The Platform-to-Business Regulation. Commentary), C.H. Beck 2024.
  6. Prawa i wolności jednostki w społeczeństwie informacyjnym a regulacja funkcjonowania platform internetowych (Individual Rights and Freedoms in the Information Society and the Regulation of Online Platforms), “Państwo i Prawo” 2023, no. 12.
  7. (Nie)dopuszczalność aborcji. Glosa do wyroku Trybunału Konstytucyjnego z 22 października 2020 r., K 1/20 (The (In)Admissibility of Abortion. Commentary on the Judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 22 October 2020, K 1/20, with B. Grabowska-Moroz), “Państwo i Prawo” 2021, no. 8.
  8. Biobanki w dobie Big Data z perspektywy prawa konstytucyjnego (Biobanks in the Era of Big Data from the Perspective of Constitutional Law), “Studia Iuridica” 2018, vol. 73.
  9. Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich jako podmiot inicjujący postępowanie przed Trybunałem Konstytucyjnym (The Ombudsman as an Initiator of Proceedings before the Constitutional Tribunal), in: M. Zubik (ed.), Minikomentarz dla Maksiprofesora. Księga jubileuszowa Profesora Leszka Garlickiego, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe 2017.
  10. Regulacja badań genetycznych a konstytucyjny standard ochrony praw jednostki (Regulation of Genetic Testing and the Constitutional Standard of Protection of Human Rights), in: A. Białek, M. Wróblewski (eds.), Wybrane aspekty praw człowieka a bioetyka, Office of the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights 2016.
  11. Konstytucyjne gwarancje ochrony prywatności informacyjnej wobec rozwoju nowych technologii (Constitutional Guarantees of Information Privacy Protection in Light of New Technologies Development), “Przegląd Legislacyjny” 2015, no. 1.
  12. Wybrane konstytucyjne aspekty funkcjonowania biobanków populacyjnych (Selected Constitutional Aspects of Population-Based Biobank Functioning), “Państwo i Prawo” 2014, no. 12.

Reports

  1. Editor of the report Funkcjonowanie Trybunału Konstytucyjnego w latach 2014–2017 (The Functioning of the Constitutional Tribunal in 2014–2017), prepared with contributions from B. Szepietowska and M. Ziółkowski, Stefan Batory Foundation 2018.

Selected Expert and Public-Oriented Publications

  1. European Society in the Digital Sphere: Are Red Lines Enough?, Verfassungsblog 2026.
  2. Too Much Time on Minitrue: Implementing the Digital Services Act in Poland (with M. Grochowski), I·CONnect Blog 2026.
  3. Cicha rewolucja w ochronie danych dotyczących zdrowia (The Silent Revolution in the Protection of Health Data, with M. Wróblewski), “Rzeczpospolita”, 25 March 2025.
  4. Rząd chce cenzury w sieci? Wyjaśniamy zmiany w przepisach wdrażających akt o usługach cyfrowych (Does the Government Want to Censor the Internet? Explaining the Amendments Implementing the Digital Services Act, with M. Grochowski), OKO.press, 23 January 2025.
  5. Polskie podejście do cyfrowych regulacji trzeba pilnie zrewidować (The Polish Approach to Digital Regulation Urgently Needs Revision, with M. Grochowski), OKO.press, 18 December 2023.
  6. Data Wars: The Phantom Menace – Personal Data Protection in the Context of Rule of Law Backsliding (with B. Grabowska-Moroz), RECONNECT Blog, 10 February 2020.
  7. Academic Freedom(s) in the Drift Towards Authoritarianism (4/4): Poland, Droit et Société Blog, 12 November 2019.
  8. Zachłyśnięci technologiami (Choked by Technologies, with M. Wróblewski), “Rzeczpospolita”, 5 November 2019.
  9. Trzęsienie ziemi nie poprawi urzędu Rzecznika Praw Obywatelskich (A Shake-Up Will Not Improve the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, with M. Ziółkowski), “Rzeczpospolita”, 13 July 2019.
  10. The History of the 48-Hour Lawsuit: Democratic Backsliding, Academic Freedom, and the Legislative Process in Poland (with B. Grabowska-Moroz and M. Ziółkowski), IACL-AIDC Blog, 28 June 2019.

Selected Conference and Seminar Presentations

  1. Governing Values? Supervisory Authorities in EU Digital Enforcement, ICON·S Annual Conference, Dublin, July 2026.
  2. Chaos as a Ladder: Supervisory Authorities as Emerging Guardians of European Constitutional Values, Digital Constitutionalism Academy, European University Institute, Florence, April 2026.
  3. “New Order” or “Glorious Chaos”? Supervisory Authorities in Complex Systems of Fundamental Rights Protection in the Digital Era, Bocconi University, Milan, February 2026.
  4. EHDS: Secondary Use of Data and Artificial Intelligence, European Health Data Space – Challenges for Europe. Implementing Solutions in the Age of AI, Big Data and Personalised Medicine conference, Warsaw, March 2025.
  5. Online Platforms and the End of the State as We Know It: Beyond Privacy and Disinformation, Count Kalergi Seminar, CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest, March 2024.
  6. State’s Giant Helpers: The Evolving Role of Online Platforms in Protecting Public Health, ICON·S Annual Conference, Madrid, July 2024.
  7. The Legacy of Putting Out Fires: Need for a New Constitutional Approach to Women’s Rights?, ICON·S Annual Conference, Madrid, July 2024.
  8. Necessity – An Underutilized Tool in the Regulation of New Technologies, Public Governance and Emerging Technologies: Values, Trust and Compliance by Design conference, Utrecht, January 2024.
  9. Influence of Fundamental Rights Discourse on Internet Platforms’ Standard of Privacy Protection, Enforcing Private Regulation in the Platform Economy conference, Villa Vigoni, Italy, December 2023.
  10. “Gateway Vaccine”: Will the COVID-19 Pandemic Change the Approach to Health Data Processing?, ICON·S Global Problems and Prospects in Public Law Conference, Wrocław, July 2022.

Organisation and Moderation of Academic Events

  • Co-organiser of an international conference on the European Health Data Space and the secondary use of data, organised in March 2026 by INP PAN, the University of Warsaw and the President of the Personal Data Protection Office; speaker and moderator of a panel on the legal and technical architecture for implementing the EHDS.
  • Organiser of training sessions, seminars and expert events on artificial intelligence, automated decision-making and fundamental rights as part of the JuLIA project.

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ORCID: 0000-0003-3079-6989

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