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Legal protection against risks of the digital society is often framed in terms of regulating (certain types of) information or data. The EU's General Data Protection Regulation in particular applies to the processing of “personal data” and has been seen as a “Jack of all trades”, a primary available means of legal protection against a variety of harms caused or exacerbated by digital technology. The emerging EU data law similarly focuses on data sharing, data aggregation and data access to empower individuals, stimulate innovation, and protect competition. This focus on information and data has been subject to growing critique, among others, for lack of theoretical understanding of what information (and data) is and how it relates to reality.

We seek proposals for papers and panels that will explore the challenges of (personal) data-centered legal protection against information-induced harms and consider alternatives beyond data (protection) from the perspectives of law and regulatory theory, critical data and infrastructure studies, economics, information studies, and other disciplines. 

Conference themes

We particularly welcome submissions that address one of the following themes, but other proposals fitting the general objectives of the conference are welcome as well:

• Understanding digital – or information-induced – harms and the role of information in their formation:
  • Theoretical and empirical studies into the nature of digital – or information-induced – harms that people experience in contemporary society and the role of information and data;
  • Reflection on the harms stemming from automation and data analytics as  governance tools, and / or regulatory solutions;
• Understanding legal protection: lessons from the legal and regulatory theory for how legal protection against these harms should be constructed;
• Understanding data and information: theoretical and empirical inter- and mono-disciplinary accounts of information and data, including but not limited to semantic, syntactic, and functionalist approaches to information, and lessons for legal protection against digital harms;
• Understanding digital economy: theoretical and empirical studies of the digital economy and lessons for legal protection against digital harms;
• The grand challenges of data protection, including its relationship to privacy and regulation of automated decision-making and other IT-facilitated practices, and how to ensure its relevance in the long-term future;
• (Critical) reflections on the EU data law and data as a regulatory target in relation to digital harms.

More information

For more information about the conference, confirmed speakers, and practical guidelines for (the submission of) papers, please read the Call for Papers via the link below. Deadline for abstract submission is 29 May.