Data Law in a Global Digital Economy

This symposium, held jointly by the NYU Law Review, the Guarini Institute for Global Legal Studies and the Institute for International Law and Justice at NYU School of Law, examined how law does, should, or can affect data ownership, concentration, and control in a global digital economy. It sought to reconstruct the law of data through foundational legal concepts such as contract, torts, property, trusts/fiduciary law, antitrust, and tax. While drawing on established approaches in intellectual property law and information privacy law, the symposium focused mainly on current legal practices and future directions in data contracting and liability, data trusts, data portability and agglomeration, ownership and property rights of data, and the export of competing models of data law. The symposium is part of a project to re-conceptualize data law and regulation in the global digital economy.

Date: 9 November 2018
Location: NYU Law, Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South, Greenberg Lounge
Organizers: Benedict Kingsbury, Angelina Fisher, Thomas Streinz, in cooperation with Marcela Schaefer
Contact: guariniglobal@nyu.edu
PDF of the Program
Papers published in NYU Law Review Volume 94, Number 4 (October 2019)

Program

Welcome, Introduction and Framing

Benedict Kingsbury, NYU Law
Marcela Schaefer, NYU Law Review
Thomas Streinz, NYU Law

Benedict Kingsbury, Marcela Schaefer, and Thomas Streinz provided the introductory remarks at this conference, held jointly by the NYU Law Review, the Guarini Institute for Global Legal Studies, and the Institute for International Law and Justice at NYU School of Law.

Panel 1: Access to Data

Lisa Austin, University of Toronto: Safe Sharing Sites
(co-authored with David Lie, University of Toronto)

Commentators:

Yafit Lev Aretz, Baruch College Zicklin School of Business
Margaret Kwoka, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Moderator:

Rochelle Dreyfuss, NYU Law

In this panel, Lisa Austin of the University of Toronto presented her paper (co-authored by David Lie) "Safe Sharing Sites." Yafit Lev Aretz and Margaret Kwoka provided comments and Rochelle Dreyfuss chaired the panel.

Panel 2: Data Standardization and Competition

Michal Gal, University of Haifa & Daniel Rubinfeld, NYU Law: Data Standardization

Commentators:

Scott Hemphill, NYU Law
Daniel Francis, Federal Trade Commission

Moderator:

Andrew Russell, SUNY Polytechnic Institute

Andrew Russell chaired this panel in which Michal Gal of the University of Haifa and Daniel Rubinfeld of NYU Law presented their paper, "Data Standardization: Portability and Interoperability in an Interconnected World?" Scott Hemphill and Daniel Francis provided comments.

Panel 3: Global Data Privacy Law

Paul Schwartz, University of California Berkeley Law: The Global Diffusion of EU Data Protection Law

Commentators:

Margot Kaminski, University of Colorado Law School
Samm Sacks, China Digital Economy Fellow, New America

Moderator:

Julia Powles, NYU Law

Julia Powles chaired this panel in which Paul Schwartz of the University of California, Berkeley Law presented his paper, "The Global Diffusion of EU Data Protection Law." Margot Kaminski and Samm Sacks provided comments.

Panel 4: Contractual Data Governance

Kevin Davis, NYU Law & Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, NYU Law: Contracting for Personal Data

Commentators:

Richard Brooks, NYU Law
Boris Segalis, Cooley

Moderator:

Stacy-Ann Elvy, New York Law School

Stacy-Ann Elvy chaired this panel in which NYU Law Professors Kevin Davis and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler presented their paper "The Contractual Approach to Data Security." Richard Brooks and Boris Segalis provided comments.

Data and Property Roundtable

Panelists:

Jorge Contreras, The University of Utah College of Law: The False Promise of (Health) Data Ownership
Jeanne Fromer, NYU Law: Trade Secrecy, the Cloud, Machine Learning, and Automation
Jason Schultz, NYU Law: Digital Product Ownership and Blockchain
Christopher Sprigman, NYU Law: IP Protection of Data-driven Content Generation

Moderator:

Katrina Wyman, NYU Law

Katrina Wyman chaired the data and property roundtable with Jorge Contreras, Jeanne Fromer, Jason Schultz, and Christopher Sprigman.