Professor Jennifer Daskal Recognized at Annual Faculty Awards

February 7, 2020

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Prof. Jennifer Daskal

On Wednesday, January 29, 2020, four professors at American University, Washington College of Law were honored as winners of the annual Faculty Scholarship Awards. Professor  Jennifer Daskal received the Edwin A. Mooers Scholars Award, which was established in 1985 in honor of former Professor Mooers for support to an AUWCL faculty member in any area of law.

Professor Jennifer Daskal is the director of AUWCL’s new Tech, Law, & Security ProgramIn her article “Borders and Bits,” Vanderbilt Law Review (2018), she discusses the ways in which governments and the private sector seek to manage data as it flows across borders. She tackles the inherent tension between how governments and data operate, the jurisdictional conflicts that have emerged, and the power that has been delegated to multinational corporations that manage our data across borders as a result. Whereas data transits the globe without any intrinsic ties to territory, the governments that seek to access or regulate this data operate with territorial-based limits. 

“Borders and Bits” highlights the flaws with the straightforward application of old jurisdictional rules onto the new medium of data and shines a spotlight on the unilateral rulemaking by powerful states and the powerful multinational companies that manage our data—which in turn puts private, multinational companies increasingly in control of whose rules govern and thus the substance of both privacy and speech rights on a global, or near-global, basis.

“I continue to build on this work in other scholarship, including my recently published Virginia Law Reviewpiece, “Speech Across Borders.”  It is also forming the foundation, in part, of a current book project, tentatively tilted The Right Way to Censor,” Daskal said. “In addition, I have been invited to present the paper at numerous academic conferences and it has led to multiple invitations and speaking engagements at policy-focused events as well, including, but not limited to, the Internet Governance Forum, CSIS, hill briefings, and ABA-sponsored events.”