These questions were at the heart of the ELI webinar held on 8 October 2026, bringing together legal practitioners, academics and experts in AI ethics to discuss the newly approved ELI Model Rules on Succession and Access to Digital Remains.
Chaired by Pietro Sirena (ELI Vice-President; Dean, Bocconi Law School), the webinar explored how the Model Rules address a growing legal gap at the intersection of succession law, privacy, technology and personal autonomy.
Edina Harbinja (ELI Co-Reporter; Associate Professor, University of Birmingham) presented the instrument's innovative two-regime approach: transferable digital assets, such as crypto-assets, remain subject to ordinary succession law, while personal digital remains, including private communications, social media accounts and AI-generated representations of deceased persons, are governed by a separate right of access. The Rules also provide solutions for complex cases where economic and personal interests overlap, recognise individuals' wishes concerning their digital remains, and establish obligations for service providers.
Offering a notarial perspective, Diego Apostolo (Notary, Italy) highlighted the practical challenges of distinguishing between economic assets and deeply personal information stored in the same digital environment. He stressed the importance of informed choices, clear instructions and cooperation with technology companies, warning that access to digital remains should not become an unrestricted right to examine the deceased's private life.
Drawing on his experience in estate planning, Jack Burroughs, TEP (Senior Associate, Quastels) illustrated how heirs and estate representatives often find themselves at the mercy of online platforms' inconsistent policies. Using examples involving crypto-assets and cloud-stored photographs, he demonstrated how the Model Rules could make digital inheritance more predictable and individuals' wishes more effective in practice.
Broadening the discussion to the rapidly developing digital afterlife industry, Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska (Assistant Research Professor, University of Cambridge) raised thought-provoking questions about AI-generated avatars of deceased persons. Should we have a right not to be digitally resurrected? What safeguards are needed to protect grieving families? She welcomed the Rules' recognition that deletion, rather than indefinite preservation, can also be an expression of dignity and autonomy, while highlighting the ethical and environmental costs of digital immortality.
The lively Q&A addressed the balance between the deceased's wishes and the rights of heirs and third parties, the obligations of technology companies, cross-border succession and the Rules' proposed preservation periods.
The discussion highlighted the importance of a legal framework that allows economic value to pass to successors without treating privacy, identity and personal memories as ordinary inheritable property. It also underscored the potential of the ELI Model Rules to guide future legislation and legal practice across Europe and beyond.
Read the ELI Model Rules on Succession and Access to Digital Remains.
The recording is available below.
