European and international data law: Empirical perspectives
ID
MSCA-19- GonzálezFuster01
Supervisors
Website
Project description
Researchers with innovative research projects on European and international data law are invited to broaden, strengthen and/or critically question existing knowledge on European Union (EU) and global data law, and most notably privacy and data protection law, with original empirical research on contemporary data practices – in particular, on how individuals and groups are made to generate data, on how they are conditioned by data, and on how they contest or attempt to counter their being governed through data, as well as the role of law in these processes. Projects might study the operationalisation of digital rights in international, European and national legal instruments and case-law, encompassing connected inter-jurisdictional and cross-border challenges, and cover a variety of areas in which data and data rights are being developed, transformed or threatened (education, health, migration, security, humanitarian action, etc.). Particularly welcomed are trans- and inter-disciplinary proposals potentially connecting law with critical theory, philosophy, computer science, digital sociology, surveillance, security, critical data, gender, Science, Technology and Society (STS), or any other relevant studies. Researchers will join the transdisciplinary Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) Research Group of VUB’s Faculty of Law and Criminology, and benefit from its internationally recognised research excellence in the area of privacy and data protection law, its unique research environment, and its privileged location at the heart of European (data) politics. Involvement in, and enjoyment of, educational and training possibilities related to EU data law and policies will be examined in advance. Depending on the proposal’s scope, ad-hoc synergies between its content and the Brussels Privacy Hub (BPH) or ongoing research projects at LSTS will be developed.
About the research Group
Research Group Law, Science, Technology and Society
Since its creation in 2003, the interdisciplinary Research Group on Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) has focused upon the articulations of law, science, technology, ethics and society, taking technological developments and their consequences as a starting point. Although LSTS’s core expertise is legal, it also has a strong track record in legal theory, philosophy (of law, of sciences and of technology) and it notably engages in criminological (surveillance and security), science and society studies (STS). LSTS’s challenges include studying and (re)thinking the constitutive and legal framework of democracies in relation to contemporary scientific and technological developments that seem to confront individuals with irreversible decision-making processes with a major impact on their lives.
LSTS nurtures a bottom-up interdisciplinary approach, whereby disciplinary scientific (legal, criminological, sociological, technological, etc.) practices and research meet, seek mutual interest and understanding, and build up articulations that remain respectful of the different constraints of the disciplines involved, their own way of constructing questions and issues and their mutual impacts.
LSTS, initially led by Serge Gutwirth and Paul De Hert, and currently under the direction of Gloria González Fuster and Mireille Hildebrandt, has grown to become an internationally recognonised centre of excellence on issues such as privacy, data protection law, and well beyond. It brings together an impressive group of reseachers and affiliated researchers, contributes to numerous research projects, and is robustly committed to education. LSTS is also very proud to be the main organiser of the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) International Conference, and supports a variety of internal and external events. LSTS is part of the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies (BCUS).
Over the years, LSTS has witnessed the emergence of the Brussels Privacy Hub (BPH), the Brussels Laboratory for Data Protection & Privacy Impact Assessments (d.pia.lab), the Privacy Salon, the Cyber and Data Security Lab (CDSL) and the Health and Ageing Law Lab (HALL). The ERC project COHUBICOL is also located at LSTS. LSTS further hosts the Chair in Fundamental Rights and the Digital Transformation and the Chair in Surveillance Studies.
More information: https://lsts.research.vub.be/en