Talk co-hosted by the UNSW Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, Media Futures Hub, and School of Social Sciences.
Join us for a joint talk hosted by the UNSW Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, the Media Futures Hub, and the School of Social Sciences, presented by Dr Jennifer Raso (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University). The talk will be held in Room 221, Level 2, John Goodsell Building (F20). Morning tea will be served.
Studies of digitalization often attend to how new technologies transform public administration and, in turn, public law. From automated decision-making to artificial intelligence, much research examines how discrete instruments or systems (algorithms, software, and interfaces) alter the delivery of government services and the decision-making practices of public officials.
As these changes occur, however, public institutions and public law are themselves being re-formed at a fundamental, conceptual level. Public law actors (legislators, civil servants, lawyers) now appear to increasingly envision government and decision-making using a new lexicon borrowed from computer science and tech development communities. Legislative contestation and compromise become supplanted by a quest for interoperable, aligned regulations. Applications that may have required evaluation become files to be batch processed. Decisions that might have compelled justification become outputs requiring explanation. This talk will draw, in a wide-ranging fashion, on these and other examples from Dr. Raso’s research. In doing so, it will explore digitalization’s capacity to transform public law from the inside out regardless of the specific technologies involved.