Workshops with Professor Anu Bradford from Columbia University

Digital Empires

The Global Battle to Regulate Technology

Speaker: Professor Anu Bradford, Columbia University

Chair: Professor Douglas Arner, The University of Hong Kong

Discussants: Professor Haochen Sun, The University of Hong Kong

                 Dr. Jedidiah Kroncke, The University of Hong Kong

Date & Time: Sep 18, 2023 (Monday) 17:00 - 18:30

Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong (In-person only)

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Abstract:

The United States, China, and the European Union are racing to regulate tech companies. Each market is advancing a competing vision for the digital economy while attempting to expand its sphere of influence in the digital world. The latest book by Professor Anu Bradford, Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology (Oxford University Press, 2023) explores how governments and tech companies navigate the inevitable conflicts that arise when these different regulatory approaches collide in the international domain. Please join us for an engaging in-person discussion of Digital Empires and the choices we face as societies and individuals, the forces that shape those choices, and the huge stakes involved for everyone who uses digital technologies.

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The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World

Speaker: Professor Anu Bradford, Columbia University

Chair: Dr. Giuliano Castellano, The University of Hong Kong

Discussant: Dr. Ying Zhu, The University of Hong Kong

Date & Time: Sep 21, 2023 (Thursday) 12:00 - 13:00

Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong (In-person only)

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Abstract:

For many observers, the European Union is mired in a deep crisis, seen as a declining power on the world stage. In her iconic book The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World  (Oxford University Press, 2020), Professor Anu Bradford argues the opposite: the EU remains an influential superpower that shapes the world in its image. By promulgating regulations that shape the international business environment, elevating standards worldwide, and leading to a notable Europeanization of many important aspects of global commerce, the EU has managed to shape policy in areas such as data privacy, consumer health and safety, environmental protection, antitrust, and online hate speech. The Brussels Effect shows how the EU has acquired such power, why multinational companies use EU standards as global standards, and why the EU's role as the world's regulator is likely to outlive its gradual economic decline, extending the EU's influence long into the future.

Speaker:

Anu Bradford is Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organizations at Columbia Law School. She is also a Director for the European Legal Studies Center and a Senior Scholar at Columbia Business School’s Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business. Her research focuses on EU law, international trade law, and comparative and international antitrust law. Before joining the faculty at Columbia, she was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School. She has also taught at Harvard College, Brandeis University, and the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law. Bradford earned her S.J.D. and LL.M. degrees from Harvard Law School and also holds a law degree from the University of Helsinki. After completing her LL.M. as a Fulbright Scholar, she practiced antitrust law and EU law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton prior to her doctoral studies. She has also served as an adviser on economic policy in the Parliament of Finland and as an expert assistant to a member of the European Parliament.