PANEL SESSIONS II TUESDAY JUNE 26 2018 9.00 AM – 10.30 AM

Room: CYTT 3.23

  • PUBLIC LAW IN THE DIGITAL ERA I: REGULATORY PERSPECTIVES FROM THE EU, JAPAN, AND CHINA
    Digitalization is the megatrend of the early 21st century. Historically, much of digital innovation has originated in clusters around major US universities, most notably in Silicon Valley. Consequently, US internet law and policy had outsized influence and global impact. Yet, in current changing times, the emerging ‘digital law‘ will likely look more amorphous. This first panel on public law in the digital era addresses the pressing legal questions triggered by exponential digital innovation, particularly focusing on the regulatory perspectives in and between the EU, Japan and China. The panelists will discuss a set of questions around big data, data flows, trade secrets as well as trade partnerships in the context of digitalization. The panel will be structured as an open conversation and will leave plenty of time for engagement with the audience.
  • The EU as Global Digital Rule-Maker
    The EU has established itself as a leading actor in the field of data protection and privacy with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entering into effect in spring 2018, replacing the outdated 1995 Data Protection Directive, and enshrining the protection of “European data subjects“ everywhere. Further legislation, on e-privacy and trade secrets protection, aspires to expand the EU‘s role as innovative regulator. But daunting questions remain: how to balance privacy and transparency in whistleblower protection? And how to retain the EU‘s role as global rule-maker in the face of thriving digital economies in the Silicon Valley and East Asia?
  • EU-Japan Perspectives on Law in the Digital Era
    Japan has recently signed a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU, the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement or JEEPA. JEEPA made some tentative steps towards addressing the digital transformation, yet refrained from the US promoted (and then abandoned) model of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which enshrined protections for free data flows and against data localization requirements. How will Japan position itself in future vis-a-vis China, the EU and the US: as rule-taker, rule-mediator, or rule-creator?
  • The Chinese Conception of Cyber Sovereignty and its Practical Effect
    This paper will unpack the conception of “cyber sovereignty“ put forward by the Chinese authorities from both ideational and institutional perspectives. It will first trace out the evolution of Chinese authorities‘ understandings of the Internet in the past 20 years and put the recent conception of “cyber sovereignty“ in the historical context. Then it will show how the new conception affects Chinese internet regulatory practice, examining the institutional change within the central government, especially the establishment of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), as a content- layer regulator and a coordinator in the whole cybersecurity regulatory framework. It will also analyze how recent laws and regulations, such as trans-border data transference, embody the idea of cyber sovereignty.
  • Regulation without Law? Perspectives from China on International Regulations Governing Infringement Disputes
    By analyzing Wechat platform‘s and its users‘ behaviors, this paper assesses the effectiveness of internet governance, especially the informal forms of regulations, and the influence of such behaviors on the practice of different stakeholders involved. This research might be of help to standardize informal social regulations in China‘s IT industry, and build an orderly and transparent internet environment with the cooperation among the government, IT practitioners and users of the internet.