A Future for Binding Law in Global Data Governance?

The event is organised by Prof Elaine Fahey, The City Law School and The Institute for the Study of European Laws (ISEL).

It is a longstanding view across disciplines that the future of global governance lies in understanding the interaction between the three major actors- of the EU, US and China. Yet in some of the most salient data governance challenges of our times, from data privacy to artificial intelligence, major disruption is in place where Europe, not limited to the EU, but also including the Council of Europe (CoE) has been the global first movers in binding hard law.

Few want to regulate AI, privacy or content moderation using binding hard law- bar Europe. Soft law digital partnerships in international economic law have become highly fashionable, involving many countries and regions. Moreover, informal organisations increasingly emerge tasked with solutions to data governance, generating a wealth of soft law. Where do international organisations fit within this matrix?

The project focuses upon the harms of rising levels of global data governance through soft law and IO responses to this. Soft law leaves less capacity for individual rights, enforcement, accountability and scrutiny. It asks who policy makers see as the subject and object of the emerging soft law quagmire?

The project thus re-evaluates global data governance as a concept amongst international organisations ‘IOs’. It critically reflects upon the casestudy of the EU as a first-mover, on the increasing dominance of ‘soft’ law in international economic law and its exclusion of e.g. parliaments and civil society through the adoption of frameworks outside of the EU treaties and whether/ where such developments are mirrored.

Draft programme

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