Thomas Streinz

Global Data Law II is designed as a follow-on from GDL I and from the Guarini Colloquium (both offered in the Fall). It is not required to have taken either of these to enroll in GDL II, however some background in the law relevant to data is needed. The seminar will consider the core components of -- and major contention among -- large-scale ordering projects in which different approaches to data governance are pursued. In the first weeks of the seminar we explore the aims and global implications of sets of data-law initiatives in the US, EU, China, and India; this includes some coverage of artificial intelligence (AI) and of foreign investment controls, as well as extraterritorial reach, and controls on transfers of data abroad. We discuss efforts to project these orders globally through international trade agreements (such as TPP, USMCA, RCEP), through infrastructural initiatives such as Belt & Road, and through global digital corporations. In the later weeks we examine ordering projects at sub-geopolitical scales: projects for indigenous peoples' data sovereignty, collective governance in open science data, etc. We conclude with a discussion of global data extractivism, data inequality, and projects for 'digital development'.

Students wishing to write a research paper on a topic of interest within the ambit of the course should seek approval from the instructors and sign up for the extra Writing Credit as well as the course itself.

The course is part of NYU Law's Guarini Global Law & Tech Program and its effort to frame the academic and practical field of "global data law" to bring into intense academic focus some significant conceptual problems and fast-growing bodies of law and legal practice. For more information visit https://www.guariniglobal.org/global-data-law.

The seminar investigates how law works in interaction with the digital technologies of contemporary societies – and how to imagine better interactions between law and infrastructure going forward. The Monday sessions introduce the tech, and the Wednesday sessions discuss legal issues this tech poses, attempts to regulate it in different jurisdictions, and the underlying regulatory theories. Foundational digital technologies we will investigate in this seminar include: the Internet that has enabled global yet uneven data flows based on private standards, hardware (such as cables and routers), and software (such as TCP/IP) and identity and authentication technologies that are designed to ensure “trust” in interactions between digital computers (and the humans behind them). These technologies form the foundation for companies like Google and Meta/Facebook to orchestrate complex targeted advertising ecosystems which involve real-time bidding matching advertisers with eyeballs. Then, we will delve into the controversial and evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Industrial-scale development of “artificial intelligence” through machine learning has progressed rapidly over the past decade due to massive datasets, availability of open source models, and access to scalable computing power. More recently, large language models (LLMs) / foundation models have enabled “generative AI”, including OpenAI’s GPT. We will delve into contemporary debates about “AI regulation” as exemplified by the US Executive Order on AI, the EU AI Act, and China’s interim measures on generative AI. Our seminar asks: How are digital infrastructures regulated and how do they regulate? We propose to “think infrastructurally” about digital technologies. Understood in this way, we analyze assemblages of hardware, software, and data with entangled technical, social, and organizational dimensions. In this way, thinking infrastructurally entails recognizing that infrastructures are more than technical objects (like data centers, fiber-optic cables, or smartphones). Recognizing how technical dimensions of digital infrastructures are entangled with social and organizational norms and practices opens up analytical pathways for questions of governance, including governance through law and not-law. In this context, we will highlight and discuss the salience of “technical” standard-setting and its economics, politics, and values in interaction with law. Thinking infrastructurally also poses critical questions about degradation, repurposing, maintenance, and sustainability. Throughout the seminar, we compare and contrast analysis of digital infrastructures from the perspective of systems engineering, from the perspective of the interdisciplinary field of infrastructure studies, and from the perspective of regulatory law and theory. Together, we will learn how to productively engage with these different modes of thinking about digital infrastructures and their regulation.

Global digital corporations (e.g. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter) have played leading roles in shaping the transnational digital order, enabled by light regulation and robust liability protection in the US. Their platforms make rules and their lobbying has influenced both national regulators and international treaty negotiators. US companies are encountering increasing regulatory pushback, especially in the EU with its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), new platform regulation in form of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). As the political environment in the US is changing, a new transatlantic regulatory discourse is emerging. The EU and the US are increasingly positioning themselves vis-a-vis China, the home of several world-leading digital economy companies (e.g. Alibaba, Bytedance, Huawei, Tencent), which operate successfully in many emerging economies but are confronted with an increasingly challenging regulatory environment in the US and at home. In recent years, Chinese legislative authorities have enacted numerous new rules covering areas such as antitrust, data and labor protection, while regulatory agencies have significantly stepped up their enforcement efforts aimed at tech companies. We begin with seminar sessions that discuss the Internet’s technological foundations, infrastructure, and governance, focusing on global corporations’ role in each of these. We then canvas established legal concepts and novel ideas about platform regulation in global contexts in Colloquium sessions with invited speakers from policy, industry, and academia. We close with discussions about the role of lawyers and lawyering within global digital corporations. The course deals with a rapidly changing and very complex technological and economic environment. The objective for the course is to equip students with the basic knowledge, core concepts, and versatile tools necessary to think critically and creatively about how to regulate global digital corporations going forward.

See the course description of the Guarini Colloquium: Regulating Global Digital Corporations (LAW-LW.12657.001)