Cutting-Edge Research Papers at the Intersection of Law and Technology
Pisa, Italy, July 2023. The culmination of months of dedicated interdisciplinary research conducted by the group of our 15 Early-Stage-Researchers (ESRs) has resulted in the publication of six cutting-edge working papers. For more than a year have our ESRs been working together in the Legality Attentive Data Scientist project (LeADS) that brings together aspiring researchers with diverse academic (law, economics, computer science) and cultural backgrounds. The objective: finding answers in a collaborative effort to pressing and emerging questions of today’s data economy and to effectively bridge the existing gaps between law and computer science.
By fostering collaboration between legal scholars and computer scientists, the project demonstrates that research conducted at the intersection of law and data science is a rich, complex and yet necessary task which ultimately yields innovative solutions to complex challenges. The melding of these disciplines allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the legal implications of rapidly advancing technologies. In their working papers, our scholars dived into and explored divers topics such as the definition and implementation of fairness in automated decisions, transparency and relevancy of consent policies, case studies on data access and re-use of vehicle data, or how technology might facilitate the creation of ‘data collaboratives’ where data can be shared in a privacy-friendly way.
The findings have already been presented to a wider scientific audience at prestigious conferences, such as the annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency 2023 (FAccT) which this year was held in Chicago. Furthermore, the ESRs will present their research at a conference organised by the LeADS consortium that will take place at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in January 2024.
On July 13 ESR Barbara Lazarotto participated as an expert facilitating a workshop at 
The opportunity to join the workshop was greatly appreciated by Barbara since it gave her the chance to apply in practice concepts of data quality, data portability, and trade secrets.
ESR Fatma S. Doğan participated in 
conference, the final panel took place at the Austrian Supreme Court, which allowed young researchers to witness the incredible atmosphere of the Supreme Court. Fatma also had the opportunity to receive valuable comments and thought-stimulating questions following her presentation.
concept of data ownership, and its
Brussel (VUB). 
In their collaboration, the ESRs combined their different research interests in law and machine learning, which enabled them to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on challenges posed by different approaches to data governance. The predominant part of the current discussion in EU data policy is centered around the challenging task of creating a data governance framework where data is ‘as open as possible and as closed as necessary’. In their article, the ESRs further elaborate on the concept of data collaboratives powered by decentralised learning techniques as a possible remedy to the shortcomings of existing data governance schemes.
Data collaboratives have been described as new emerging forms of partnerships where privately held data is made accessible for analysis and where collaboration between participants is facilitated to unlock the public good potential of previously siloed data. [1] They thus fit well the EU policy shift that has taken place over the past years. Whilst for decades, the introduction of exclusive property rights was discussed as a potential tool to empower data subjects with regard to ‘their’ data and to facilitate the emergence of data markets, this changed with the 2020 European Data Strategy. Now, the potential of the data economy should be unlocked by facilitating data access and sharing. The authors presented their concept of data collaboratives powered by decentralised learning techniques, which can be used as a tool to reach the goals of the current EU data strategy: facilitate access to data while protecting privacy and intellectual property interests which individuals and companies might have with regard to ‘their’ data. The collaboration between the ESRs thus reflected the idea behind the LeADS project that solutions to existing tensions in the data economy require an interdisciplinary perspective from both law and data science.
multinational health data-sharing efforts who were unsure about the usefulness of the EDHS for facilitating easier data sharing, as it seemed to only add EU certifications on top of specific national requirements (which were sometimes at odds).
Prof. Paul De Hert, one of LeADS supervisors, gave the Conference’s opening speech, introducing the new activities and the main topics discussed in 2023, such as the EDPB elections and the future of data protection in Europe in the face of recent EU Regulations.
harms: A multidisciplinary, Antecipatory Perspective”, organized by one of LeADS beneficiary Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg (LU), exploring the harms posed by dark patterns – such as the cookie banners – and how to address them. Arianna was also a workshop facilitator at the workshop “Personalised Privacy; How can we leverage personalisation for better privacy protection?” organized by Maastricht University, Law and Tech Lab.
panelist at a panel on “The Underuse of Personal Data, Its Opportunity, Costs, and EU Policies” organized by the University of Turin, which focused on how the underuse of personal data can pose risks to society, such as hindering technological development of health research.
