Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India. Cyber law, cybersecurity law and the law of artificial intelligence, since 1988.
When an autonomous AI system acts, the law still has to find a person who answers for what it did. Dr. Pavan Duggal's work sets out how that answer should be given, in instruments anyone can read, cite and contest.
Admitted in 1988 and designated a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India in July 2026.
Read the biography 203Of which 179 are documented by the ITU, from the IT Act commentaries to AGI and the law.
Browse the catalogue 12Instruments on AI accountability and agentic AI liability, each permanently citable by DOI.
Open the register
The legal status of AI agents remains entirely undefined in most global jurisdictions, creating a massive accountability vacuum precisely as agentic AI systems become commercially deployed at scale.
His answer is a clear allocation of responsibility across developers, deployers, operators, data providers and users, supported by logging, auditability, risk classification, remedies and sector-specific liability rules.
For more than two decades Dr. Duggal has written on the law of each new technology as it arrived: the internet, mobile, cloud, blockchain, the metaverse, and now artificial intelligence.
See all 137 titles in the catalogue
Artificial Intelligence Law
2021
Artificial Intelligence & Cyber Security Law
2018
Artificial Intelligence, Cybercrimes & Cyberlaw
Artificial Intelligence – Some Legal Principles
ChatGPT & Legalities
2023
GPT-4 & Law
Law and Generative Artificial Intelligence
2023
Superintelligence & Law
2023
Digital Humans And Law
Digital Twins & Law
The Metaverse Law
2022
Quantum Computing Law
Crypto Assets, Crypto-Currencies & Cyberlaw
Data Protection Law
The core of his AI accountability work is deposited on Zenodo, the open repository operated by CERN, so that it can be cited, tested and built on.
Open the full register of twelve worksICCC 2026 opens with an online summit on agentic AI accountability and liability.
Day 1 of ICCC 2026, held online and convened by Dr. Duggal. The Summit is intended to produce specific recommendations on AI and agentic AI for submission to the Government of India. Attendance is free, with its own registration.
The main sessions of ICCC 2026, under the theme "Converging Futures: Cybersecurity, Cybercrime and AI in the Autonomous Age", with Dr. Duggal as Conference Director. Speakers may attend in person or join online.
Scope Convention Centre, SCOPE Complex, CGO Complex, Pragati Vihar, New Delhi. cyberlawcybersecurity.com
At the International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime & Cybersecurity, New Delhi, November 2024.
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Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India, author, teacher and institution builder. Thirty-eight years in cyber law, cybersecurity law and the law of artificial intelligence.
Education
St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi
Faculty of Law, University of Delhi
Languages
English, Hindi, Punjabi
Identifiers
Dr. Pavan Duggal is a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. Admitted to the Bar in 1988 and designated a Senior Advocate in July 2026, he has given thirty-eight years of practice, scholarship and institution building to cyber law, cybersecurity law and, latterly, the law of artificial intelligence. He advises governments, international organisations and multinational corporations on artificial intelligence law, emerging technology governance, legal strategy and technology risk. Before his designation he led Pavan Duggal Associates, Advocates, a specialised technology law practice in New Delhi.
His career has followed technology into law as each new field arrived. He provided foundational inputs to India's Information Technology Act, 2000 and its amendments, and went on to write on mobile law, cloud computing, biometrics, data protection, blockchain, the metaverse and quantum computing. In 1998 he founded Cyberlaws.Net, a cyber law consultancy, and he has sat on the Panel of Neutrals of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center since 2000.
In the courts, he was appointed Amicus Curiae by the Delhi High Court in 2020 and has served on the Supreme Court's sub-committee on electronic evidence rules. He trains the justice system itself, through regular sessions at the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, the Delhi Judicial Academy, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and the National Police Academy. In May 2019, with the International Telecommunication Union, he conducted training programmes for elected Judges and Officers of the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
His work combines commentary with construction. He has written and placed on the permanent scholarly record a connected body of normative instruments on AI accountability, each citable by DOI, and has founded the forums, institutes, conferences and university through which those instruments are debated and taught. His present focus is the law, policy and regulation of agentic artificial intelligence and the liability architecture that autonomous AI agents require.
Artificial intelligence law and ethics; agentic AI and the liability of autonomous agents; AGI preparedness; data protection and privacy, including India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act and the GDPR; cybercrime and digital forensics; electronic evidence; cybersecurity law; blockchain and digital asset regulation; metaverse law; quantum computing legal preparedness; neuro-rights; digital sovereignty; and intellectual property in cyberspace.
The institutions he has founded or leads, and the universities where he teaches.
Approved text for programmes, brochures and introductions from the stage. Please use it as written.
Dr. Pavan Duggal is a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India with thirty-eight years of practice in cyber law, cybersecurity law and the law of artificial intelligence. He is the author of 203 books, 179 of them documented by the International Telecommunication Union, and of twelve works on AI accountability deposited on Zenodo with DOIs.
Dr. Pavan Duggal is a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. Admitted to the Bar in 1988 and designated a Senior Advocate in July 2026, he has given thirty-eight years to cyber law, cybersecurity law and the law of artificial intelligence. He is Founding Forum Director and Global Chair of the International AI Accountability Forum, Chief Executive of the AI Law Hub, Conference Director of the International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime & Cybersecurity, and Founder and Honorary Chancellor of Cyberlaw University. He provided foundational inputs to India's Information Technology Act, 2000, has worked with the ITU, UNODC, UNCTAD, UNESCAP, UNESCO and UNICEF, and in 2019 conducted training, with the ITU, for Judges and Officers of the International Court of Justice. The author of 203 books, he wrote the Duggal Global Agentic AI Liability Framework. His current focus is liability for autonomous AI agents.
Our next speaker is Dr. Pavan Duggal, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. For thirty-eight years he has worked where law meets technology, from India's Information Technology Act to the liability of autonomous AI agents. He has written 203 books, conducted training for Judges and Officers of the International Court of Justice, and directs the International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime and Cybersecurity. Please welcome Dr. Pavan Duggal.
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His central project: a durable architecture of accountability and liability for artificial intelligence, and above all for AI agents that act on their own.
AI agents are being deployed commercially while their legal status, and the question of who is liable for what they do, remains unsettled in most jurisdictions.
The legal status of AI agents remains entirely undefined in most global jurisdictions, creating a massive accountability vacuum precisely as agentic AI systems become commercially deployed at scale.
His answer is a clear allocation of responsibility across developers, deployers, operators, data providers and users, supported by logging, auditability, risk classification, remedies and sector-specific liability rules.
Foundational legal principles for the regulation of artificial intelligence, framed from the standpoint of a practising litigator in the Global South.
Regulating AI Vortex: The Duggal Doctrine (2025)
The Duggal Doctrine was unveiled at the Global Summit on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Tech Law and Governance (GSAIET 2025) in New Delhi on 24 July 2025, and endorsed by the New Delhi Accord on Artificial Intelligence Emerging Tech Law & Governance, 2025. It is carried into operational form by the Duggal Global Agentic AI Liability Framework.
These doctrines and principles are advanced as scholarly proposals for debate and adoption. They do not state existing law.
Ideas he has worked out across his books and instruments, offered for debate.
The convenings through which the instruments were presented, discussed and endorsed.
Global Summit on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Tech Law and Governance (GSAIET 2025), New Delhi The Duggal Doctrine is unveiled.
New Delhi Accord on Artificial Intelligence Emerging Tech Law & Governance, 2025 Supported by the Department of Legislative Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. It endorses the Duggal Doctrine and recommends a Global AI Governance Council headquartered in New Delhi.
Global South AI Law and Governance Dialogue, chaired by Dr. Duggal Produces draft principles on sovereign AI accountability; its architecture is set out in the Global South Legal Architecture deposited on Zenodo.
ICCC 2025, New Delhi Closes with an outcome document adopted by its participants.
International AI Accountability Forum, India International Centre, New Delhi Endorses the IAAF Charter, the New Delhi Compact on AI Accountability and the Universal Declaration of AI Accountability Rights.
GSAIET 2026, India International Centre, New Delhi
Second Global South AI Law and Governance Dialogue
International Agentic AI Accountability & Liability Summit, online Forthcoming, as Day 1 of ICCC 2026.
AGI-specific governance platforms; a binding International Convention on Agentic AI, AGI and Superintelligence; and the full inclusion of the Global South as architects, not recipients, of global AI governance.
The AI work rests on three decades of writing the law of each new technology. His books run from section-wise commentaries on the Information Technology Act to cybersecurity law, electronic evidence, intermediary liability, mobile law, biometrics, data protection, cryptocurrencies, the metaverse and quantum computing. In 2015, at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, he called for an International Convention on Cyberlaw and Cybersecurity.
Browse the book catalogue or open the register of instruments.
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Twelve works deposited on Zenodo, the open repository operated by CERN, as at 5 November 2026. Each is open to read, versioned, and cross-linked to ORCID 0000-0003-4782-1044.
Showing 12 of 12
| No. | Title as deposited | Version | DOI for all versions | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The AI Accountability Framework 2026: Framework and DoctrinesAI accountability | 3.0 | 10.5281/zenodo.21119708This version 10.5281/zenodo.21119709 | |
| 2 | Duggal Global Agentic AI Liability Framework: A Conceptual, Normative, and Operationally Precise Blueprint for Accountability, Responsibility, and Governance in the Era of Autonomous Artificial Intelligence AgentsAgentic AI | 1.1 | 10.5281/zenodo.21273446This version 10.5281/zenodo.21273447 | |
| 3 | Universal Declaration of AI Accountability Rights (UDAAR 2026)AI accountability | 1.0 | 10.5281/zenodo.22019724This version 10.5281/zenodo.22019725 | |
| 4 | New Delhi Compact on Artificial Intelligence AccountabilityAI accountability | 3.2 | 10.5281/zenodo.22020133This version 10.5281/zenodo.22020134 | |
| 5 | Global South Legal Architecture for Artificial Intelligence Governance and Accountability: A Common Minimum Denominators Approach for the Global South Group of NationsGlobal South and New Delhi | 6 | 10.5281/zenodo.22020359This version 10.5281/zenodo.22020360 | |
| 6 | New Delhi Accord on Artificial Intelligence Emerging Tech Law & Governance 2025Global South and New Delhi | 1 | 10.5281/zenodo.22101393This version 10.5281/zenodo.22101394 | |
| 7 | AI Consciousness and the Law: Towards an AI Consciousness Legal ProtocolFrontier questions | 1.0 | 10.5281/zenodo.23383611This version 10.5281/zenodo.23383612 | |
| 8 | Compromised, Hijacked and Defending AgentsAgentic AI | 0.1 | 10.5281/zenodo.23481082This version 10.5281/zenodo.23481083 | |
| 9 | Global Agentic AI Accountability Principles by Dr. Pavan DuggalAgentic AI | 1.0 | 10.5281/zenodo.23480022This version 10.5281/zenodo.23480023 | |
| 10 | Model Agentic AI Evidence and Black-Box Accountability Law Drafted by Dr. Pavan DuggalAgentic AI | 1.0 | 10.5281/zenodo.23550778This version 10.5281/zenodo.23550779 | |
| 11 | The Law of AI Agency: Authority, Attribution and the Unauthorised Act of an Autonomous AgentAgentic AI | 0.1 | 10.5281/zenodo.23552970This version 10.5281/zenodo.23552971 | |
| 12 | Outcome Document of the International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime & Cybersecurity, adopted by the participants, 19 to 21 November 2025, New Delhi, IndiaConference outcomes | 1 | 10.5281/zenodo.22101623This version 10.5281/zenodo.22101624 |
Cite by the DOI for all versions, which always resolves to the latest text. Use the version DOI only when you mean one specific text.
Duggal, P. [Title]. Version [n]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/[DOI]
These are Dr. Duggal's own scholarly and normative proposals. They are offered for scrutiny, comment and adoption, and are distinct from any instrument issued by a government or an intergovernmental body.
Universities, regulators, standards bodies and international organisations are invited to review, test and comment on these texts. Write to Dr. Duggal.
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Of which 179 are documented by the International Telecommunication Union. From the first commentaries on India's Information Technology Act to the law of AI agents, AGI and superintelligence.
The AI books trace the field as it moved: from AI and cybersecurity in 2018, through ChatGPT and generative AI, to AI agents, AGI and the Duggal Doctrine.
Artificial Intelligence & Cyber Security Law
2018
Artificial Intelligence Law
2021
The Metaverse Law
2022
ChatGPT & Legalities
2023
GPT-4 & Law
Law and Generative Artificial Intelligence
2023
Superintelligence & Law
2023
Artificial Intelligence, Cybercrimes & Cyberlaw
Artificial Intelligence – Some Legal Principles
Digital Humans And Law
Digital Twins & Law
Quantum Computing Law
Law and Generative Artificial Intelligence (2023) develops the concept of hallucination liability. Artificial Intelligent Agents and Law (2024) turns to autonomous agents. AGI and Law (2025) is a legal treatise on the governance of artificial general intelligence, and Regulating AI Vortex: The Duggal Doctrine (2025) sets out the Doctrine at book length. Forthcoming titles address AI regulation and quantum computing law.
Every title from the author's book list of 21 November 2024, which runs to 200 entries with paperback and hardcover editions listed separately. Here they are grouped into 135 titles, with the two books published since added.
Showing 137 of 137 titles
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Subject groupings are editorial, made for browsing. Titles are reproduced from the author's list; years are shown only where confirmed.
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Practice, public service and international engagement since 1988, in date order.
A selection. Dates are given as recorded in Dr. Duggal's curriculum vitae.
Admitted to the Bar
Founds Cyberlaws.Net, a cyber law consultancy, as its President
Appointed to the Panel of Neutrals, WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center
ICANN Nominating Committee
Ordre du Mérite de Budapest
Delivers the High-Level Policy Statement at WSIS 2015, Geneva, calling for an International Convention on Cyberlaw and Cybersecurity
Artificial Intelligence Law Hub established, with Dr. Duggal as Chief Executive; speaks at the Council of Europe Octopus Conference
Conducts training programmes, with the ITU, for elected Judges and Officers of the International Court of Justice at The Hague
Appointed Amicus Curiae by the Delhi High Court
Moderates "Artificial Intelligence and Its Regulation: Developments and Trends" at the WSIS Forum 2024, ITU, Geneva Session page on itu.int
ICCC 2024, New Delhi, as Conference Director Photographs
Unveils the Duggal Doctrine at GSAIET 2025, New Delhi
New Delhi Accord on Artificial Intelligence Emerging Tech Law & Governance, 2025
Chairs the Global South AI Law and Governance Dialogue
ICCC 2025, New Delhi, closes with an outcome document adopted by its participants
International AI Accountability Forum convened at the India International Centre, New Delhi
GSAIET 2026, India International Centre, New Delhi
Designated Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; second Global South AI Law and Governance Dialogue
Intervention in the cyber and AI working group, BRICS Civil Forum, New Delhi
Presents at the IOSCO Fintech Task Force stakeholder engagement session on AI, Mumbai
More than two and a half decades of advice to the Government of India, and sustained work with the United Nations system and the Council of Europe.
Regular faculty sessions for judges, civil servants and senior law enforcement officers.
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Dr. Duggal has spoken at over 3,000 conferences, seminars and workshops, from the World Summit on the Information Society to judicial academies across India.
Each can be given as a keynote, a briefing or a longer programme, and fitted to judges, regulators, boards or students.
A record of some of the rooms in which the work has been presented.
World Summit on the Information Society, Geneva High-Level Policy Statement calling for an International Convention on Cyberlaw and Cybersecurity.
Octopus Conference, Council of Europe
International Court of Justice, The Hague Training programmes for elected Judges and Officers, with the ITU.
WSIS Forum 2024, ITU, Geneva Moderator, "Artificial Intelligence and Its Regulation: Developments and Trends". Session page
GSAIET 2025, New Delhi
International AI Accountability Forum, New Delhi
BRICS Civil Forum, New Delhi
IOSCO Fintech Task Force stakeholder engagement session on AI, Mumbai
Dr. Duggal founded ICCC and directs it each year in New Delhi. ICCC 2025 closed with an outcome document adopted by its participants, now deposited on Zenodo.
cyberlawcybersecurity.comDay 1 of ICCC 2026, held online and convened by Dr. Duggal. The Summit is intended to produce specific recommendations on AI and agentic AI for submission to the Government of India. Attendance is free, with its own registration.
The main sessions of ICCC 2026, under the theme "Converging Futures: Cybersecurity, Cybercrime and AI in the Autonomous Age", with Dr. Duggal as Conference Director. Speakers may attend in person or join online.
Scope Convention Centre, SCOPE Complex, CGO Complex, Pragati Vihar, New Delhi. cyberlawcybersecurity.com
At ICCC 2024, New Delhi, 13 to 15 November 2024. Select a photograph to enlarge it.
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For invitations to speak, academic and institutional collaboration, and media enquiries.
Please include the event or purpose, the date, the audience and the format you have in mind.
Keynotes, expert briefings, masterclasses and policy roundtables on AI law, agentic AI liability, cyber law and data protection.
Universities, regulators, standards bodies and international organisations wishing to review, comment on or work with the instruments of record.
Comment on developments in AI law, cyber law, cybercrime and data protection.
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