CAIDG collaborated with the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (BIICL) on a series of webinars on 'Law and Change'. Law and Change is a series designed to discuss how global crises are changing law and how law and legal services can assist in the orderly management of global change.
Social Media
22 Oct 2021
| Chair | Professor Mark Findlay | SMU CAIDG |
| Speakers | Professor Catalina Goanta | Maastricht University |
| Dr Nikolas Guggenberger | Yale Law School / Information Society Project | |
| Dr Marilyn Bromberg | University of Western Australia | |
| Michael Graif | Mintz / Penn Law | |
| Sharanya Shanmugam | SMU CAIDG | |
| Professor Eleni Kosta | Tilburg University |
This event looked at the topic of social media, with a particular interest in issues like safe digital space and the protection of personal data integrity. COVID has forced most of the world into a relationship with social media even more dependent than in days before. Yet the regulation of personal data access (and the re-use of such data) has had little advancement in terms of legal or state-centred regulation beyond broad parries at anti competitive practices. In addition, the extent to which social media has generated digital communities, especially for the young, in which law has made little inroads is worthy of critical review.
The whistle-blower revelations concerning Facebook and its knowledge of harmful content being tolerated and hate festered on its platform has shifted the regulatory climate away from ethics alone.
Smart Cities, Platform Economy, and the Vulnerable
8 Mar 2022
| Moderators | Prof Eva Lein | UNIL / Director of the Centre of Comparative law of BIICL |
| Prof Mark Findlay | SMU CAIDG | |
| Speakers | Sheryn Omeri | Cloisters Chambers |
| Jacob Turner | Fountain Court Chambers | |
| Mabel Choo | SMU CAIDG |
This event was held jointly with the University of Lausanne.
Recently, courts reasserted the much-undermined employer/employee relationship between gig workers and platform providers. The days when disruptive economies challenged the fundamental protections of conventional employment law may be numbered. But where do the platforms not turn to exploit profit? Data produced by service providers and customers, much of which is harvested and marketised without their knowledge, creates wealth for the platforms and headaches for personal data protection. Recently some nation states have advanced laws and regulations to try and limit data re-used to public good. But this has had little impact on the lucrative secondary data trade. Is it time to discuss current developments, but also to rethink data ownership, data rights and sovereignty against new responsible access frames like digital self-determination.
Smart Cities and Sustainability
8 Jun 2022
| Chair | Prof Mark Findlay | SMU CAIDG |
| Speakers | Prof Iria Giuffrida | William & mary Law School |
| Prof Gregory Kalfleche | Toulouse 1 University | |
| Prof Beatriz Botero Arcila | Sciences Po Law School | |
| Prof Paivi Korpisaari | University of Helsinki | |
| Dr Tiago de Melo Cartaxo | University of Exeter and NOVA School of Law |
This session looked at the topic of Smart Cities and Sustainability, and focused on the question of undervaluing social infrastructure in smart cities as a platform for looking at more than efficiencies in urban design. Smart cities are currently considered 'smart' because of their use of AI tech and mass data sharing. This is directed towards the enhancement of physical infrastructure associated with urban development and modernisation. Much of this development is at the cost of established neighbourhoods and traditional ways of living. If AI and big data can be redirected to improving social infrastructure (such as neighbourhood cohesion and identity, bonds of trust, improvements in the human face of living spaces) then there can be a correction in the image of AI as destructive of social bonds.
Last updated on 06 Jul 2022 .