At the 51st Slovenian Lawyers’ Days (Portorož, 16–17 October 2025), a thought-provoking panel focused on Behavioural Economics and Law. The session, chaired by Jaka Cepec, explored how insights from behavioural science – from Kahneman’s dual-system theory to the latest findings on digital influence – are reshaping our understanding of legal decision-making. Alongside Cepec, the panel featured Mojca Plesničar and Manja Skočir, whose contributions approached behavioural influences from two connected but distinct perspectives: the institutional and the digital. The discussion was complemented by Lana Katarina Gotvan, who examined procrastination among company directors through a behavioural lens.
The Architecture of Legal Decision-Making
Mojca Plesničar presented her paper The Architecture of Legal Decision-Making, which applies the concept of choice architecture to professional legal reasoning. She argued that even highly trained legal professionals – judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and legislators – are subject to the same cognitive biases as laypeople. The key difference lies in their institutional environment, which itself operates as a form of choice architecture.
Plesničar illustrated how features such as the order of presenting evidence, default procedural options, or even the design of legal forms can subtly shape decisions. She emphasised that decision environments are never neutral: their structure can either reinforce biases or help reduce them. Her conclusion – that choice architecture can be part of the solution rather than merely the problem when recognised and consciously designed – resonates directly with the aims of the Sentrix project, which investigates how institutional and cognitive structures interact in sentencing and other forms of legal decision-making.
Digital Nudges and Dark Patterns
Manja Skočir presented Digital Nudges and Dark Patterns – How Technology Exploits Our Behavioural Weaknesses, addressing the other side of behavioural influence – the one embedded in digital environments. She explained how digital platforms increasingly rely on behavioural insights to design user interfaces that steer people’s attention and choices, often without their awareness. While digital nudges can serve legitimate goals (such as improving security or promoting sustainable choices), they easily slip into dark patterns – manipulative design techniques that deceive users or push them towards actions that do not serve their interests.
Skočir showed that the digital environment, enhanced by data analytics, personalisation, and constant presence, amplifies behavioural effects far beyond what is possible in analogue settings. She also analysed the emerging EU regulatory responses, such as the Digital Services Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act, highlighting the growing tension between behavioural influence, user autonomy, and legal protection in the digital sphere.
Shared Framework and Relevance for Sentrix
Together, the two presentations illustrated how behavioural economics provides a powerful lens for understanding law – not only as a system of rules, but as an environment of decisions. Plesničar examined the internal architecture of legal institutions, while Skočir exposed the digital architectures that increasingly shape our choices and perceptions.
Their insights converge in the central premise of Sentrix: that law operates within layered decision-making architectures – human, institutional, and technological – and that recognising and designing these structures consciously can lead to more consistent, transparent, and just outcomes.
