Internet of Things and the Law: Legal Strategies for Smart Technologies
Join the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation and the IEEE Society for Social Implications in Technology (Australia Chapter) (IEEE SSIT) for the fifth session in the Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World online seminar series: 'Internet of Things and the Law: Legal Strategies for Smart Technologies' with Dr Guido Noto La Diega.
For decades, the decreasing importance of tangible wealth and power – and the increasing significance of their disembodied counterparts – has been the subject of much legal research. For some time now, legal scholars have grappled with how laws drafted for tangible property and predigital ‘offline’ technologies can cope with dematerialisation, digitalisation, and the internet. As dematerialisation continues, this talk aims to illuminate the opposite movement: rematerialisation, namely, the return of data, knowledge, and power within a physical ‘smart’ world. This talk frames this development as a central question: can the law steer rematerialisation in a human-centric and socially just direction? To answer this question, this talk focuses on regulation of the sociotechnological phenomenon of the Internet of Things (IoT), that is primarily responsible for this shift. Existing laws can be interpreted to empower IoT end users: but legal approaches have limits. Instead, Dr Noto La Diega will argue that the commons for a collectivised and open IoT will go some way towards overcoming these limitations.
This seminar draws upon Dr Guido Noto La Diega’s recent book Internet of Things and the Law: Legal Strategies for Consumer-Centric Smart Technologies (Routledge, Oct 2022). The book contains a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of legal issues in the IoT, focusing on EU law.
Speaker
Dr Guido Noto La Diega (he/they) is an award-winning Scotland-based Sicily-born legal academic working at the intersection of law and technology. They are Associate Professor of Intellectual Property and Privacy Law in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Stirling. At Stirling, Noto La Diega leads the IP and Media Law courses; coordinates the Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Network SCOTLIN (Scottish Law and Innovation Network); directs the Just AI Lab; is Deputy Chair of the Faculty’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee; and carries out research at the Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance, and Privacy (CRISP). Currently, they are leading the AHRC-DfG-funded international research project ‘From Smart Technologies to Smart Consumer Laws: Comparative Perspectives from Germany and the United Kingdom’, in partnership with the universities of Osnabrück, Warwick, and Bonn. Outside of Stirling, Noto La Diega is Member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on AI and Data in Education and Training; Martin-Flynn Global Law Professor in the School of Law at the University of Connecticut; Fellow of the Nexa Center for Internet and Society; Research Associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies; and Co-Convenor of the Open Section of the Society of Legal Scholars, the oldest and largest society of law academics in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Noto La Diega’s main expertise is in Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, and blockchain. Their work is animated by the conviction that the law should be pivotal to socially just, diverse, and sustainable technologies.
This session is hosted by Dr Kayleen Manwaring, Hub Fellow and Stream Leader of Challenges for a Cyber-Physical World at the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation and Deputy Chair of the IEEE SSIT (Australia).
Some reviews for Internet of Things and the Law: Legal Strategies for Consumer-Centric Smart Technologies.
‘…Noto La Diega boldly recognizes the limits of law and proposes a utopian horizon for IOT governance based on a deep engagement with studies in political economy and social theory. This book not only advances our understanding of IOT policy but also serves as a model for future work in the law and political economy of technology policy.’
Professor Frank Pasquale , Brooklyn Law School, author of the bestseller The Black Box Society
‘A wonderfully informative and deeply reflective study of the Internet of Things from a socio-legal perspective.’
Professor Megan Richardson, Professor of Law, University of Melbourne, and Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society
‘This is a timely and brilliant addition to scholarship that should inform forward-thinking regulatory approaches.’
Professor Caroline B Ncube, Professor and SARChI Research Chair in Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development, University of Cape Town