The event will start with a presentation by the Author, followed by comments by Dr. Kristina Irion (Institute for Information Law, UvA) and Dr. Andrea Leiter (Amsterdam Center for International Law, UvA) and by a Q&A with the audience, moderated by Dr. Niels ten Oever (Department of European Studies and critical infrastructure lab, UvA).

The event is a joint initiative from the ARTES transversal clusters ‘Power and governance’ and ‘Digital networks, communications, and technologies’.

About the book:

This book explores the dynamic legal semantics of territory as applied to data. It offers a theoretical assessment of the legal challenges that data flows pose for the principle of territoriality and for state sovereignty more generally. The concept of sovereignty has traditionally developed in close connection with the exercise of powers over a territory, and ideas of jurisdiction have always been based on the principle of territoriality. Digitalization questions however the very idea of physical frontiers. Interconnected networks make data in effect borderless. Data can in fact be created, stored, processed, and accessed anytime and from anywhere.

The idea of the book is upbeat: the law can keep pace with the ability of data to fragment reality. The condition for this is that sovereignty disconnects from territory. Disconnection is not getting rid of the territory once and for all, it only means that for data alternatives to the territorial connection exist.

About the Author:

Mariavittoria Catanzariti is a Research Fellow at the Robert Shuman Centre and Assistant Professor of Legal Philosophy at University of Padua. She joined the European University Institute as Jean Monnet Fellow in 2017. Barrister in law since 2010, she obtained a PhD in Law with a special focus on Legal Philosophy and European Law from Roma Tre University in 2011 and the Italian Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor in Legal Sociology in 2018. Her main research interest revolves around the interaction of digital transformation and information society with the law. Her publications cover different legal areas such as privacy and data protection, law and technologies, human rights, and legal sociology.

Time and Date: 17:00-18:30, 18 December 2024

Location: Humanities Labs, Bushuis F0.01, Kloveniersburgwal 48 (main entrance), 1012 CX Amsterdam