In this session, Law Researchers Antonino Cirillo, Lola Montero Santos and Selçukhan Ünekbas will deliver talks on their doctoral thesis projects, exploring issues regarding the interplay between law, regulation and innovation.
Abstracts
Antonino Cirillo – Between Coercion and Consent: a Nodal Regulatory Perspective on Hegemony
No-one likes to be called a hegemon. Nonetheless, hegemony is one of the most used – and abused – terms in political and social discourse. We instinctively connect it to the exercise of overwhelming power both within the state and at the global level. Why is so? How has the notion of hegemony travelled throughout the centuries to its application in contemporary politics and international relations? In light of these questions, my presentation has two main objectives. The first one is to delineate the different meanings that have been attributed to hegemony under varying circumstances and epochs, as a starting point to understand the characterizing elements of such a multifaceted concept. My second purpose is to re-elaborate the resulting notion of hegemony from the theoretical perspective of nodal regulation. This notion will then be applied, in the following part of my PhD thesis, to conceptualize the effects that hegemony has on the production and distribution of global public goods.
Lola Montero Santos – Competition & Innovation in the Digital Age: the Role of Data
The institutional goal of constructing A Europe fit for the digital age is a pivotal element of the EU’s post 2020 New Industrial Strategy. Unleashing the value of data is what will crown the Union as a worldwide, standard-setting, industrial leader, capable of delivering the ‘next-generation hyperscalers’, who will realise the ‘European way’. That is, the balancing the flow and wide use of data while preserving high privacy, security, safety and ethical standards . My thesis will deconstruct the European Strategy for data. It will analyse and assess whether the aforementioned expectations will be achieved through the EU´s recently proposed data regulations, to what degree, and at what cost. It will identify the crucial trade-offs the Union is accepting by following this regulatory option. To undergo this deconstruction, I will break down the European Strategy for data into different elements, which build the sections of my research. This will be the content of my presentation.
Selçukhan Ünekbas – A More Technological Approach to European Competition Law
Competition law and technological development have been intertwined throughout their existence. However, the specific contours of this interaction is underexplored. This project aims to highlight the avenues through which competition law and technology interact. It departs to answer two questions: how does technology influence European competition law, and, by contrast, how does European competition law affect technology and its development. I proffer that such interactions materialize in a multitude of ways. Technology influences European competition law through its architecture, which can drive or disrupt competition. It can also affect the development of competition law via creating a "need for law"; new technologies may necessitate the construction of novel antitrust laws, such as the Digital Markets Act. In turn, European competition law influences technology in two primary manners. It can enable or channel technological development via adopting certain mindsets, such as innovation-centrism. Alternatively, the moral elements of European competition law can interfere with, and induce change on, the business models of high-technology firms, for instance via insisting on the development of non-discriminatory practices.
After the presentations, participants are welcome to raise their questions and take part in the Q&A session and the debate.