Law at the End of the Day

Larry Catá Backer's comments on current issues in transnational law and policy. These essays focus on the constitution of regulatory communities (political, economic, and religious) as they manage their constituencies and the conflicts between them. The context is globalization. This is an academic field-free zone: expect to travel "without documents" through the sometimes strongly guarded boundaries of international relations, constitutional, international, comparative, and corporate law.

Monday, September 30, 2024

Margaret Hu on "Critical Data Theory"--Online Presentation Research Seminar Series Law, Society & AI

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I am delighted to pass along this announcement which may of interest:

We are glad to invite you to the next seminar of the research seminar series Law, Society & AI (LS&AI) organised jointly by the Smart Law Hub and Law department of HEC Paris, Telecom Paris & Ecole Polytechnique (LIX).

The LS&AI seminar is designed as a series of invited talks on questions at the intersection of legal, societal, and artificial intelligence issues.

During the next session we will discuss the paper Critical Data Theory (available here)

Speaker: Margaret Hu (William & Mary Law School)
Discussant: Thomas Le Goff (Telecom Paris)
When: Tuesday, 1 October, 11.00am, Paris (CET)
Where: HEC Paris, Room S127 - Building S - 1st Floor. Please register with Olfa Mzita (in cc).
Online: https://hec-fr.zoom.us/j/99949135681
Abstract
Critical Data Theory examines the role of AI and algorithmic decisionmaking at its intersection with the law. This theory aims to deconstruct the impact of AI in law and policy contexts. The tools of AI and automated systems allow for legal, scientific, socioeconomic, and political hierarchies of power that can profitably be interrogated with critical theory. While the broader umbrella of critical th4eory features prominently in the work of surveillance scholars, legal scholars can also deploy criticality analyses to examine surveillance and privacy law challenges, particularly in an examination of how AI and other emerging technologies have been expanded in law enforcement practices, and homeland and national security programs. To take one example of AI’s impact, this Article argues that mass incarceration’s technological interdependencies and trajectories can be better conceptualized through Critical Data Theory. This Article proposes that the theory can help assess the computational and AI impact of technological developments that may exacerbate mass incarceration and limit criminal procedure rights.

If you would like to present a paper in 2025 or be a discussant to one of the papers already scheduled in the programme, please reach out to us.

Looking forward to seeing you on-campus or online.

Best regards

Conveners
David Restrepo Amariles (HEC Paris)
Nils Holzenberger (Telecom Paris)

Michalis Vazirgiannis (Ecole Polytechnique)

The seminar elaborated Professor Hu's excellent recent article, Hu, Margaret, Critical Data Theory (March 8, 2024). William & Mary Law Review, Vol. 65, No. 839, 2024, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4753142

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About this Site:

At the end of the day, law?

. . . . Emperors and kings

Are but obeyed in their several provinces,

Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds;

But his domain that exceeds in this

Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man.

A sound magician is a mighty god.

* * *

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,

And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,

That sometimes grew within this learned man.

Faustus is gone; regard his hellish fall,

Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise

Only to wonder at unlawful things,

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits

To practise more than heavenly power permits.

Christopher Marlowe, "Dr. Faustus" (before 1593)

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All essays are (c) Larry Catá Backer except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
The essays may be cited and quoted with appropriate reference. Suggested reference as follows:
Larry Catá Backer, [Essay Title], Law at the End of the Day, ([Essay Posting Date]) available at [http address].

The author holds a faculty appointment at Pennsylvania State University. Notice is hereby given that irrespective of that appointment, this blog serves as a purely personal enterprise created to serve as an independent site focusing on issues of general concern to the public. The views and opinions expressed here are those of its author. This site is neither affiliated with nor does it in any way state, reflect, or represent the views of Pennsylvania State University or any of its entities, units or affiliates.

Globalization Law and Policy Series from Ashgate Publishing

About the Series:

Globalization: Law and Policy will include an integrated body
of scholarship that critically addresses key issues and theoretical debates in comparative and transnational law. Volumes in the series will focus on the consequential effects of globalization, including emerging frameworks and processes for the internationalization, legal harmonization, juridification and democratization of law among increasingly connected political, economic, religious, cultural, ethnic and other functionally differentiated governance communities. This series is intended as a resource for scholars, students, policy makers and civil society actors, and will include a balance of theoretical and policy studies in single-authored volumes and collections of original essays.

An interview with the Series Editor

Queries and book proposals may be directed to:
Larry Catá Backer
W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar
and Professor of Law, Professor of International Affairs
Pennsylvania State University
239 Lewis Katz Building
University Park, PA 16802
email: lcb911@gmail.com

or

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