DR2: Digital Rights 2.0: A Decade of Transformations July 9, 2021

We invite concept paper contributions to the online Symposium “Digital Rights 2.0”, which marks a 10-year anniversary from the conference “Digital Rights” held in 2011 at the University of  Leeds. The main objective of this symposium is to establish a venue for sharing and discussing with the research community the ways in which human rights have been shaped by emerging technologies in the past decade: a decade that exposed the conceptual fragilities of the rule of law in data-driven environments and has been characterised by a disillusionment with human rights narratives, beginning with the Snowden revelations in 2013, followed by the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2015, leading up to the “fake news info-demic” in 2020. Such a revisionist approach does not only suggest an innovative means of interpreting social phenomena in a techno-legal setting, but it is much needed as a tool to evaluate past considerations and hypotheses and explore any lessons learned. In today’s fast-paced academic environment, we are rarely given the chance to explore current matters from such a wide angle: we aim to bring in a generalist perspective that transcends disciplinary boundaries and specialisms.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. The following paper categories are welcome:

• Open Forum papers (max 2500 words): research in progress, ideas paper. Contributions may come from researchers,  practitioners and others interested in the topics of the special issue. Contributions might be, but not limited to, discussion papers, literature reviews, case studies, working papers, features, and articles on emerging research.
• Student papers (max 2500 words): research in progress. Contributions may come from post-graduate students and Ph.D. students interested in the topics of the special issue.
• Curmudgeon papers (max 1000 words): short op-ed on trends in technology, science and society commenting on issues of concern to the research community and wider society.

Paper reviews will be double blind. All concept papers submitted for review should not include names and affiliations of the authors, nor an acknowledgments section. These aspects can be added at the camera-ready stage. The references should include published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, though care should be taken in the style of writing in order to preserve anonymity. Papers should not exceed 2500 words (excluding references and appendix) and must follow the ACM sigconf template (for LaTeX) or the interim template layout.docx (for Word), both at http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. All papers should be converted to PDF prior to electronic submission

Best Paper Award for the paper with the most outstanding contribution is sponsored by LETS Lab (Law, Emerging Tech & Science) and the Peter Harris Trust Fund with a cash prize of £200. 

List of Topics

With this in mind, proposals are invited for short concept papers (max 2500 words) on the following areas:

• Free speech considerations - Topics may include, but are not limited to: Fake news and disinformation, AI content moderation, Online Harms White Paper
• Privacy considerations – Data Protection and E-Privacy related topics
• Copyright considerations – Topics may include, but are not limited to: AI generated works, 3Dprinting, NFTs
• Competition considerations – Topics may include, but are not limited to: Online monopolies, corporate concentration, network neutrality.

Committee

Organizing committee

• Dr Argyro Karanasiou, LETS Lab - University of Greenwich
• Dr Aysem Diker Vanberg, LETS Lab - University of Greenwich

Invited Speakers

• Professor Andrew Murray, London School of Economics
• Professor Roger Brownsword - King's College London/ Bournemouth University
• Professor Ian Cram - University of Leeds
• Professor Mireille Hildebandt - Rabboud University
• Dr Paul Bernal - University of East Anglia
• Dr Emily Laidlaw - University of Calgary
• Dr Angela Daly - University of Strathclyde
• Dr Shara Monteleone - Italian Information Commissioner's Office
• Dr Jasper Sluijs - University of Utrecht
• Dr Dariusz Kloza - Vrije Universiteit Belgium

Venue

The conference will be held online.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to a.karanasiou@gre.ac.uk

Sponsors

We are the grateful recipients of a grant from the Peter Harris Trust Fund.