At the 2021 all virtual ICON-S Mundo conference, Angelina Fisher, Benedict Kingsbury, and Thomas Streinz convened a working group on “Global Data Law”, a new research project that explores the many unresolved legal questions posed by: data flows that transcend jurisdictional boundaries; highly uneven concentration of control over data; and the various transformations caused by the digitalization of economies and societies, in particular for developing countries and disadvantaged communities. We posit “Global Data Law” as a new field of research and practice encompassing various private and public legal technologies of global data governance including: ways of establishing jurisdiction over data (including data localization); data ownership and open data; data contracting and licensing; and legal-technological solutions for data portability, interoperability, and data sharing.

ICON-S Mundo provided us with the opportunity to reach out to the broader community of public law scholars interested in global data governance. While the EU’s GDPR has emerged as a global model for the governance of “personal data”, broader questions of transnational data governance, including the role of International Organizations, remain underexplored. During the Working Group session we discussed selected topics that form part of our broader research agenda to receive feedback and to explore potential collaborations.