Speaker

Neha Mishra holds a doctorate degree from the University of Melbourne. Her PhD thesis, which investigates how international trade agreements apply to cross-border data flows, was awarded the 2019 Harold Luntz Graduate Research Prize for the best thesis in Melbourne Law School, and the 2020 University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis. Neha has also held visiting research positions at the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg and the World Trade Organization. She completed her undergraduate degree in law from National Law School Bangalore (India), LL.M. in Public International Law from London School of Economics (UK), and Master’s in Public Policy from National University of Singapore (Singapore). Neha is a dual-qualified lawyer (UK and India) and has previously practiced law with Herbert Smith Freehills LL.P. in London and Economic Laws Practice in Delhi. Neha also consults international organisations, the private sector, as well as governments on digital trade and data regulations.

Abstract

Data flows are fundamental to digital trade. They not only drive commercial transactions but also constitute ‘intangible asset[s]’ and ‘infrastructure’ underlying a digitalised economy. Free flow of data is essential to preserve the fundamental end-to-end architecture of the internet. Despite the economic and technological importance of data flows, various governments restrict data from flowing across their borders through data restrictive measures. These restrictions have significant economic costs, by hindering cross-border trade in services and interfering with the seamless functioning of different layers of the internet. Thus, regulation of cross-border data flows is a key concern in both international trade law and data/digital governance.
 

About the Series

Digital Technologies are changing the modes in which law and governance operate, opening up toward new perspectives on normativity. How to think the relationship between international law and technology and its implications for normativity? What are the topologies of normativity that these terms connote? What must legal reasoning become to better attend to techno-legal assemblages? These questions are leading to the emergence of a new scholarly field revolving around ‘international law and technology’ with new theoretical and methodological approaches, new assumptions and preoccupations and new modes of working across disciplines. In this lecture series we bring together leading scholars in international law, international relations and legal theory to present their work and discuss the implications of an ever increasing digitization of socio-economic life.