King Hall Hosts Seminar Series on Digital Surveillance and Democratic Freedoms

Leading scholars, hackers, and visionaries from around the world have been visiting King Hall throughout the 2015-16 academic year to address some of the most pressing legal and social issues of our time in "Surveillance Democracies?", a multidisciplinary seminar series exploring the tension between increasing levels of state surveillance and democratic ideals of privacy, liberty, and free expression. This spring semester will bring to Davis leading lawyers for Chelsea Manning (Shayana Kadidal) and Edward Snowden (Ben Wizner).

The series is directed by UC Davis School of Law Professor Anupam Chander, Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall Research Scholar and Director of the California International Law Center at UC Davis, and Kriss Ravetto, Associate Professor and co-director of Cinema and Digital Media at UC Davis, who are collaborating with Ken Goldberg, Professor of Engineering and Art at UC Berkeley and Faculty Director of Data and Democracy at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).  The series is made possible through support from a prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer award.  UC Davis was one of only 10 universities to receive the award in 2014.

Professor Ravetto stated that "Surveillance Democracies?" draws from faculty expertise in politics and society, law, and engineering to "question the zero-sum game logic that contrasts concerns with democracy, privacy and free speech with those for security and control." Such issues have gained in importance as rapid advances in information technology have made it possible for democracies to conduct surveillance of citizens on a level that would have been unimaginable in the past under even the most intrusive authoritarian regimes, Professor Chander noted.

"The Stasi would have envied the surveillance possible in our digital age," said Chander, referring to the infamous East German secret police.

As concerns over terrorism escalate, governments are under pressure to track terror suspects in an effort to increase security, prompting questions as to whether widespread surveillance programs compromise constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.  As such programs expand to include political protestors, whistleblowers, and larger portions of the population, it is important for legal educators, law students, and practitioners to engage these issues, Chander said.

"In an age of anxiety over security, there has been an increasing trend toward authorizing widespread surveillance by the government of ordinary activities," said Chander.  "As lawyers, it is crucial for us to start to imagine what such widespread surveillance means for democracy. I hope to help prepare our students to think about the difficult new issues brought about by digitization. Can our new digital tools be used to enhance security and democracy simultaneously? Should there be legal constraints on information collection and processing by governments and corporations?"

The "Surveillance Democracies?" series explores these issues in seminars featuring renowned scholars and leading-edge thinkers.  Highlights have included a visit, via encrypted video, of Jacob Appelbaum, the journalist, computer researcher, and hacker known for his work with WikiLeaks, as well as talks by Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in History of Science and Physics at Harvard University, and Helen Nissenbaum, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication and Computer Science at New York University and Director of the Information Law Institute.

During the Spring 2016 semester, "Surveillance Democracies?" will continue with the following events in King Hall Room 1301:

• Laura Donohue, Professor of Law, Georgetown Law (January 19)
• Kelly Gates, Professor of Communication and Science Studies, UC San Diego (January 26)
• Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (February 9)
• Ben Wizner, Director of the Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, American Civil Liberties Union (February 23)
• Shayana Kadidal, Senior Managing Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights (March 1)
• Paul Schwartz, Jefferson E. Peyser Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law (March 8)
• Gabriella Coleman, Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy, McGill University (March 9)
• Matthew L. Jones, James R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization, Columbia University (March 29)
• Derek Gregory, Peter Wall Distinguished Professor, University of British Columbia in Vancouver (April 5)
• Chinmayi Arun, Research Director, Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi (April 12)
• Jennifer Granick, Director of Civil Liberties, Stanford Center for Internet & Society (April 19)