Current Law on Trial

Law on trial 2019: Communications technologies on trial

The theme of this year's Law on Trial week is Communications Technologies on Trial.  

Through a series of focused debates, we will investigate the implications of the fact that communications technology, which is often used as though it were a public good, is privately owned and that the major actors and platforms that connect the infrastructure to the users are also transnational corporate interests. In particular, the week's events will focus on the ways that the architecture of the communications technology system poses serious challenges to legal regulation, while the dominance of neo-liberal thought arguably creates political resistance to regulatory solutions.

Communications Technologies on Trial will investigate these issues through a range of presentations, panel discussions and public debates that focus on the sub-themes of democracy, social and financial exclusion, cultural production, work and the environment, and security, privacy and surveillance. It is jointly organized with the Velux funded digital humanities project "The Past's Future", which is based at the Saxo Institute and the School of Law at the University of Copenhagen.

When and where?

Law on Trial 2019 will run from 10th to 14th June. Please register your interest via the links below:

Monday 10 June Democracy

Tuesday 11 June Social and Financial Exclusion

Wednesday 12 June Cultural Production

Thursday 13 June Work and the Environment

Friday 14 June Privacy, Security and Surveillance

What is Law on Trial?

Established in 2010, Law on Trial is Birkbeck's annual showcase of free lectures, discussion panels and workshops, featuring leading academics, practitioners, activists and leaders from civil society. 

Each year we explore a different theme: we want to stimulate a burst of critical legal thinking and interaction between our speakers and our audience that will reverberate long after the week has ended. 

Each year's theme reflects an area of research strength in the School of Law and past events illustrate our diverse research interests, with topics including scientific evidence and experts in courts, social justice and inclusion, religion and the law, and the European Union.