The Centre for Private and Commercial Law and Centre for Global Law and Innovation are hosting a joint a research seminar based on a paper by Dr Václav Janeček and discussion by Dr Cristiana Santos.

After introducing a variety of illegal online tracking practices, the talk will review the current English legal framework concerning the possible grounds of compensatory liability of different entities in these online surveillance ecosystems (with some comparative remarks and observations about relevant EU laws). This will set the ground for three core questions, namely (i) what amounts to compensable online harm in these situations, (ii) how it can be quantified and (iii) how effectively it can be redressed by way of damages. Referring to the emerging case law on the topic, the talk will then highlight some fundamental shortcomings in the current law’s ability to deal with compensable harms caused by illegal online tracking. In this vein, the talk will critique Art 82 of the GDPR—which is supposed to address these issues head on—and consider whether it is possible to overcome these shortcomings by way of legal interpretation or whether a more radical change to the law is required.

Bio's

Dr Janeček is a private law scholar, focusing on legal remedies and issues at the interface of law, philosophy, and computer science. He is the Programme Director of the University of Bristol Law School's LLM in Law, Innovation and Technology. Connecting law, philosophy and technology, Dr Janeček explores laws concerning interpersonal obligations and private wrongdoing, commerce in data, and data-driven law.

Dr Cristiana Santos, Assistant Professor in Law and Technology. She holds a joint international Doctoral Degree in Law, Science and Technology (University of Bologna) and a Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science (University of Luxembourg). Her PhD thesis focused on modeling relevant legal information using computational ontologies. Currently, she is an expert of the Data Protection Unit, Council of Europe; expert for the implementation of the EDPB's Support Pool of Experts; and expert of the Digital Persuasion or Manipulation Expert Group. Cristiana holds an International Chair Starting Career position at the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA) (2023-2026) to work on technical and legal aspects of data protection.

This talk will be open to all Law School Staff and PGR's and also to the public. Please register for the event. You will receive the hybrid joining instructions via email prior to the event.

Contact Information
If you have any questions about this event, please contact the Centre Executive Assistant, Paige Spicer.