Staff Profile
Professor Lilian Edwards
Prof of Law, Innovation & Society
- Email: lilian.edwards@ncl.ac.uk
Background
Lilian Edwards is a leading academic in the field of Internet law. She has taught information technology law, e-commerce law, privacy law and Internet law at undergraduate and postgraduate level since 1996 and been involved with law and artificial intelligence (AI) since 1985.
She worked at the University of Strathclyde from 1986–1988 and the University of Edinburgh from 1989 to 2006. She became Chair of Internet Law at the University of Southampton from 2006–2008, and then Professor of Internet Law at the University of Sheffield until late 2010, when she returned to Scotland to become Professor of E-Governance at the University of Strathclyde, while retaining close links with the renamed SCRIPT (AHRC Centre) at the University of Edinburgh. She resigned from that role in 2018 to take up a new Chair in Law, Innovation and Society at Newcastle University. She also has close links with the Oxford Internet Institute.
She has co-edited (both with Charlotte Waelde and alone) four editions of a textbook, Law and the Internet (later Law, Policy and the Internet); the fourth edition appeared in 2018. She won the Barbara Wellberry Memorial Prize in 2004 for work on online privacy and data trusts. A collection of her essays, The New Legal Framework for E-Commerce in Europe, was published in 2005. She is Associate Director, and was co-founder, of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Centre for IP and Technology Law (now SCRIPT). Edwards has consulted for the EU Commission, the OECD, and WIPO.
Edwards co-chairs GikII, an annual series of international workshops on the intersections between law, technology and popular culture.
Edwards is Deputy Director of CREATe, the Centre for Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise and Technology, a Research Councils UK research centre about copyright and business models.
Research
My research revolves generally around the regulation of new technologies but in particular the Internet, and the Internet of Things. In recent years I have moved towards specialisation in privacy and data protection, especially as applied to AI and algorithms. Beyond privacy, I am interested in algorithmic transparency and justice; robots and autonomous/connected vehicles; and regulation of platforms, especially social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. I am a recognised expert in European intermediary liability and the E-Commerce Directive. I am currently looking at the idea of "data trusts" to help in connected /IoT/smart environments; and at regulation of "deepfakes" or synthetic data and media.Publications
- Veale M, Edwards L. Clarity, surprises, and further questions in the Article 29 Working Party draft guidance on automated decision-making and profiling. Computer Law & Security Review 2018, 34(2), 398-404.
- Edwards L. Data Protection and e-Privacy: From Spam and Cookies to Big Data, Machine Learning and Profiling. In: Law, Policy and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2018.
- Edwards L. Data Protection: Enter the General Data Protection Regulation. In: Law, Policy and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2018.
- Edwards L, Veale M. Enslaving the Algorithm: From a "Right to an Explanation" to a "Right to Better Decisions"?. IEEE Security & Privacy 2018, 16(3), 46-54.
- Edwards L, ed. Law, Policy and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2018.
- Edwards L. Privacy and Data Protection 1: What is Privacy? Human Right, National Law, Global Problem. In: Law, Policy and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2018.
- Edwards L. 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility?': The Rise of Platform Liability. In: Edwards, L, ed. Law, Policy and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2018.
- Schafer B, Edwards L. "I spy with my little sensor": fair data handling practices for robots between privacy, copyright and security. Connection Science 2017, 29(3), 200-209.
- Boden M, Bryson J, Caldwell D, Dautenhahn K, Edwards L, Kember S, Newman P, Parry V, Pegman G, Rodden T, Sorrell T, Wallis M, Whitby B, Winfield A. Principles of robotics: regulating robots in the real world. Connection Science 2017, 29(2), 124-129.
- Edwards L, Veale M. Slave to the Algorithm? Why a 'right to an explanation' is probably not the remedy you are looking for. Duke Law & Technology Review 2017, 16, 18-84.
- Edwards L, Urquhart L. Privacy in Public Spaces: What Expectations of Privacy Do We Have in Social Media Intelligence?. International Journal of Law and Information Technology 2016, 24(3), 279-310.
- Edwards L. Privacy, Security and Data Protection in Smart Cities: A Critical EU Law Perspective. European Data Protection Law Review 2016, 2(1), 28-58.
- Luger E, Rodden T, Jirotka M, Edwards L. How do you solve a problem like consent?: the workshop. In: Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp'14 Adjunct). 2014, Seattle, Washington: ACM.
- House of Lords Select Committee on Communications. Social Media and Criminal Offences. London: House of Lords, 2014. HL Paper 37.
- Edwards L, Abel W. The Use of Privacy Icons and Standard Contract Terms for Generating Consumer Trust and Confidence in Digital Services. CREATe, 2014. CREATe Working Paper Series.
- Edwards L. Privacy, Law, Code and Social Networking Sites. In: Ian Brown, ed. Research Handbook on Governance of the Internet. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013, pp.309-352.
- Edwards L, Harbinja E. Protecting Post-Mortem Privacy: Reconsidering the Privacy Interests of the Deceased in a Digital World. Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal 2013, 32(1), 83-129.
- Edwards L. The Role and Responsibility of Internet Intermediaries in the Field of Copyright and Related Rights. WIPO, 2010.
- Edwards L. Consumer Privacy Law 1: Online Direct Marketing. In: Lilian Edwards and Charlotte Waelde, ed. Law and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, pp.489-510.
- Edwards L, Hatcher J. Consumer Privacy Law 2: Data Collection, Profiling and Targeting. In: Lilian Edwards and Charlotte Waelde, ed. Law and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, pp.507-539.
- Edwards L, Waelde C, ed. Law and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009.
- Edwards L. Pornography, Censorship and the Internet. In: Lilian Edwards and Charlotte Waelde, ed. Law and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, pp.623-670.
- Edwards L. The Rise and Fall of Online Intermediary Liability. In: Lilian Edwards and Charlotte Waelde, ed. Law and the Internet. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, pp.47-88.
- Edwards L, Wilson C. Redress & Alternative Dispute Resolution in Cross-Border E-commerce Transactions. Briefing Note. European Parliament Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, 2007. IPOL/A/IMCO/2006-31.
- Edwards L, ed. Special Issue on Privacy and Technology. Arts and Humanities Research Council Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, 2006.
- Edwards L. Articles 12-15 ECD; ISP Liability. The Problem of Intermediary Service Provider Liability. In: Lilian Edwards, ed. The New Legal Framework for E-Commerce in Europe. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2005, pp.93-136.
- Edwards L. Articles 6-7, ECD; Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002. Canning the Spam and Cutting the Cookies: Consumer Privacy On-line and EU Regulation. In: Lilian Edwards, ed. The New Legal Framework for E-Commerce in Europe. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2005, pp.31-66.
- Edwards L, ed. The New Legal Framework for E-Commerce in Europe. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2005.
- Edwards L. Reconstructing consumer privacy protection on-line: a modest proposal. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 2004, 18(3), 313-344.