Abstract

Modern technologies seem to bring almost as many harms as benefits, and legislators are rolling out myriad new regulations to mitigate such harms. The EU for instance has recently introduced the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, AI Act, Data Act and many more. Such technology laws are often intended to be technology neutral in an attempt to ensure that they have broad application but also do not quickly go out of date. But if laws are truly technology neutral, then why do we need so many?

In this talk I will first look at technology neutrality from a legal perspective. Then, with my computer science hat on, I will look at how systems designers build long-lived systems, which often have similar design aims as long-lived laws. I will attempt to show what designers of technology laws could learn from designers of technology systems, and vice versa. I will then discuss some ongoing work trying to leverage similarities between the two disciplines.

Bio: Tristan Henderson is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, where he is meant to be in charge of Postgraduate Research and the Responsible Computing Research Group (insomuch as anyone can be in charge of anything in academia). His current research interests revolve around the intersection between computer science and law, with a particular focus on digital rights. Tristan has an MA in Economics, an MSc and PhD in Computer Science and an LLM in Innovation, Technology and the Law, which perhaps explains why he is so confused about interdisciplinary work. For more see https://tnhh.org/