Research

Research and Key Themes

LATI pursues original and innovative research on a range of legal, policy, and ethical issues concerning established and emerging technologies. Our research falls under four key themes: 

Technology and Human Rights | Technology can protect and promote human rights but can also pose complex challenges to those same interests. Our research, which often employs interdisciplinary approaches, analyzes the impact and implications technology has for human rights in a variety of contexts.  Among the issues we interrogate in this theme: privacy, surveillance, cyberbullying, online censorship, Big Data, and the Internet of Things.

Technology and Security | The deployment of digital media and other technologies, and government and law enforcement responses to them, has significantly impacted crime and security. Our work in this theme focuses, in particular, on technological aspects of crime as well as complex cross-border issues, such as warrantless searches of digital media during border crossing. Under this theme, we tackle issues like cyber-crime, cyber-security, and cross-border issues.

Commerce, Innovation, and Intellectual Property | Technology continues to challenge consumer rights, intellectual property, and innovation policy. And emerging forms of commerce, based on new financial technologies—like the crypto-currency Bitcoin—are revolutionizing business. Our research explores the law, policy, and ethical dimensions of these changes, including e-commerce, consumer protection online, crypto-currencies, IP and innovation, and smart cities.

Emerging Technologies | Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and the “internet of things”, are playing an increasingly central role in day to day life and major societal sectors. Our research seeks to understand and analyze these impacts while pioneering new legal, policy, and ethical frameworks to govern and guide their development and deployments. Under this theme, we tackle law, policy, and ethical issues raised by these emerging technologies as well as the deployment of new legal technologies in the legal system.

Our work is often interdisciplinary and collaborative and seeks to inform, engage, and assist courts, policy-makers, industry, civil society, regulatory and professional bodies, and the broader research and education community.