Roundtable with PhD Researcher Ola Al Khatib

In this roundtable, we were joined by Ola Al Khatib, a PhD researcher at Utrecht University in The Netherlands who was also a visiting fellow at UNSW. In the session, Ola discussed her piece on conceptualising the algorithmic turn in public administration.

Thursday, 18 September 2025 at Melbourne Law School

Abstract:

While administrative authorities have been automating their decision-making processes for decades now, they are increasingly turning to more complex algorithmic systems. Systems traditionally used in public administration are rule-based in nature, arguably more straightforward translations of existing legislation into code, and have the purpose of fully replacing humans in processes of social security benefit allocation and yearly tax determination. However, more recent algorithmic systems are data-driven in nature, arguably more detached from the specific legislative framework in question as they are based on computationally generated risk scores of profiled individuals, and serve to triage citizens for further human review or offer human reviewers additional information to decide whether or not to further investigate an individual.

This ‘algorithmic turn’ in public administration likely changes how administrative authorities determine the rights and duties of individual citizens. This draft PhD chapter maps the changes in the decision-making processes of administrative authorities as caused by the algorithmic turn in the social security system in The Netherlands. This is done by focusing on e.g. the stages and actors throughout the broader decision-making process and dissecting this broader process through the ‘law and technology’ concept of ‘micro choices’. Sources are (1) general law and technology/STS/public administration literature (i.e. not specific to public administration or the social security system in The Netherlands) and (2) case studies constructed from obtained FOI documents and interviews with administrative authorities.

Bio:

Ola al Khatib is a PhD Candidate affiliated with the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice of Utrecht University in The Netherlands. She is currently finalizing her doctoral dissertation focusing on the legal regulation of algorithmic decision-making processes conducted by administrative authorities (supervised by Prof Nadya Purtova and Prof Rob Widdershoven). From July-September, she is also affiliated with UNSW Sydney as a Junior Visiting Research and Teaching Fellow, teaching a self-designed LLM course ('Regulation of AI and automated decision-making in Europe').

As a socially engaged academic, Ola is member of the advisory board of the Dutch non-profit organization Stichting Algorithm Audit. Together with her colleagues at Stichting Algorithm Audit, she conducted an audit commissioned by the Dutch administrative authority allocating student benefits. The audit followed after it was reported that the algorithmic detection process regarding the misuse of college benefits disproportionally affected students with a migratory background.

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Before joining Utrecht University, Ola gained experience in both the public and private sector, e.g. at the Dutch Permanent Representation to the Council of Europe and in the administrative and international law practices of multiple (international) law firms. She also worked as a junior researcher and lecturer in constitutional and administrative law at Leiden Law School. In this capacity she has helped preparing a research report commissioned by the European Parliament (on an EU digital administrative act) and co-authored a research report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (on freedom of government information).

Ola’s academic background is multidisciplinary with a strong legal focus. She holds an honours BA in 'Liberal Arts & Sciences: Global Challenges' from Leiden University College The Hague and an LLB from Leiden Law School. After having completed an LLM in Administrative and Constitutional Law from Leiden Law School in 2020 (cum laude), she embarked on a postgraduate LLM at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). At the LSE, she specialised in European public law and data protection law as well as the (comparative) theory and philosophy of law (with distinction).