The International Law and Technology Interest Group (ILTechIG) focuses on the implications of technological advances across a range of international law disciplines. Technology has become an important issue in almost every area of international law practice and scholarship. International trade treaties are increasingly focused on questions of data flows, privacy, and digital products and services. The emergence of cyberspace poses special challenges to traditional conceptions of both civil and criminal jurisdiction. The laws of war must grapple with the development of warfare through drones and the difficulty of identifying state action in the online realm. International environmental law faces advances in nanotechnology, deep seabed mining, space technologies, and even the possibility of geo-engineering. Technology also plays an important role in human rights and humanitarian law, ranging from the use of mobile phones for delivering health services to mapping human rights abuses or disaster response. The intersection of technology and international law also poses a range of important challenges in the area of international governance and regime design. Indeed, the practice of international law itself is being transformed by new technological approaches to knowledge management and communication.

There is much to be gained from a cross-disciplinary discussion about the opportunities and challenges of technology for each of these areas of international law. The purpose of this interest group will be to provide scholars and practitioners from a variety of international legal fields with opportunities to exchange ideas about the way in which technology affects their work and how the law can and should respond to those developments. Through an interest group focused on the relationship between technology and international law, we can share knowledge and build expertise on issues of importance to international law in the twenty-first century.

Group Officers

Ching-Fu Lin

Co-Chair

Han-Wei LIU

Co-Chair

Georgios (George) Dimitropoulos

Vice Chair