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On 29 September the Governing the Digital Society luncheon talk Legal protection by design with Prof.  will take place. 

Lawyers and computer scientists tend to turn the domain of the ‘other’ into a black box, assuming that the output of their respective domains is a collection of uncontested scientifically sound truths. With the concept of Legal Protection by Design Hildebrandt aims to contribute to (re)designing our information and communication infrastructure (ICI) in a way that is not merely compliant with legal rules such as those of data protection law, but actually affords reinventing and sustaining the rule of law (fundamental rights protection, checks and balances, contestability).

Moving beyond mutual black boxing

This implies moving beyond mutual black boxing while nevertheless respecting the domain specificity of the other discipline. It requires lawyers to develop sufficient understanding of the assumptions and limitations of computer science to pierce inflated expectations, and it requires computer scientists to develop acuity with regard to ‘what law does’ and ‘how law operates’.

About Mireille Hildebrandt

Mireille Hildebrandt is a Research Professor on ‘Interfacing Law and Technology’ at Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), appointed by the VUB Research Council. She is co-Director of the Research Group on Law Science Technology and Society studies (LSTS) at the Faculty of Law and Criminology. Her latest book, (2020, OUP) is available in open access.

Governing the Digital Society

This talk is organized by the Special Interest Group Principles by the Design, part of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ's focus area Governing the Digital Society. Governing the Digital Society promotes research on the social processes of datafication, algorithmisation and platformisation. The focus area's basic research inquiry revolves around the question: How to develop and apply principles of (good) governance in digital societies? 

Please note, the starting time has changed to 13:15 o'clock.