[Manila Principles] Fwd: CFP: Intermediary Liability as a Human Rights Issue (abstracts due Nov 30)

[Martin Husovec]

FYI > might of interest for some people on the list

*(with apologies for cross-posting)*


*Call for Papers (abstracts due November 30, 2016)*


*Intermediary Liability as a Human Rights Issue*


An issue of *Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and
Electronic Commerce Law (JIPITEC) *(link <https://www.jipitec.eu/>)



Edited by: Martin Husovec (Tilburg University)

*Overview*

Intermediaries are backbones of Internet economy. Increasingly, they are
also becoming unavoidable gatekeepers to our fundamental rights as
citizens. They shape our opinions, but also amplify power of our words;
they provide platforms for our creativity, but also limit its forms. Given
their crucial position of control, they are increasingly called upon to
assist the government in implementing various policies. These range from
fighting hate-speech and terrorism to providing effective remedies against
defamation and intellectual property violations. In addition to imposing
liability, the governments, recognizing power of intermediaries, are
turning to them into co-regulators of Internet environment asking them to
surveil, control and enforce.



Intermediary liability is generally understood as a set of rules that place
responsibility on Internet companies with respect to third-party content
that is deemed unlawful. These rules act as carrots and sticks. They
incentivize intermediaries to handle complaints of individuals and
governments. The design of the rules influences how and when the content is
take-down, blocked, or filtered away. It influences what automated
solutions intermediaries pick from the market and with what consequences.



It is therefore no surprise that the governmental policies regarding
intermediary liability are increasingly scrutinized from the perspective of
human rights. The Council of Europe recently conducted a large scale study
regarding such policies in its member states and is working on a set of
recommendations.[1] The civil society globally launched a discussion about
the principles regarding the best governmental practices.[2] The European
Court of Human Rights is receiving a wave of new cases objecting to
national schemes of intermediary liability.[3] In general, the intermediary
liability policies are re-entering the spotlight globally and increasingly
becoming to be evaluated for their human rights compliance.


This paper symposium will provide an opportunity to highlight new academic
work and serve as a venue to build theory about a rapidly changing subject.
Owing to *JIPITEC’s* open access policy of the journal, it is our goal to
facilitate and promote the relevant research to a variety of stakeholders
working daily in the area—including lawyers, judges, law enforcement,
legislators and policymakers, activists and civil and human rights
organizations, technologists, and academics in a variety of fields. We
welcome contributions that present original research, offer conceptual,
critical, or theoretical analyses of these issues.



*We particularly encourage submissions addressing (not limited to) such
subjects as:*

·         Content take-down and reinstatement in light of human rights

·         Human rights aspects of filtering and website-blocking

·         Human rights aspects of voluntary enforcement agreements among
individuals

·         Government-pressured ‘codes of conduct’ and human rights

·         Relationship between EU law and ECHR law on intermediary liability

·         Digital jurisdiction and its role for due process

·         Positive obligations of the state and their impact on
intermediary liability

·         Right to be delisted and its implications for global free speech

·         Transparency of intermediaries about content-removals

·         Algorithmic enforcement and fundamental rights



*Deadlines and anticipated timeline:*

·         *Initial abstract submission deadline (~ 500 words): November 30,
2016 *

·         Authors notified of (tentative) acceptance: December 31, 2016

·         Full papers due (based on accepted abstracts): May 31, 2017

·         Peer-review (after submission of full papers)

·         Publication in 2017



*Specifics about submissions:*

Initial abstracts should contain approximately 500 words. Subsequent full
paper submissions should contain fewer than 10,000 words (including
footnotes and citations), and should contain a 200-word abstract and
biographical information about the authors on a cover page. *Invited* full
paper submissions will undergo formal double-blind peer review, which is
expected to take between 1 and 2 months (submissions that are not selected
for peer-review will be released back to the authors quickly). All
submissions should be submitted in editable Word (*.doc/x) or *.rtf
formats, and should adhere to the formatting and citation requirements of
*JIPITEC* (available at https://www.jipitec.eu/for-authors).



All submissions of abstracts and/or questions should be sent to the editor
via email to: *m.husovec (at) uvt (dot) nl*

------------------------------

[1] See <http://www.coe.int/en/web/freedom-expression/study-
filtering-blocking-and-take-down-of-illegal-content-on-the-internet>

[2] See <https://www.eff.org/files/2015/10/31/manila_principles_1.0.pdf>

[3] Delfi AS v Estonia; Cengiz/Akdeniz/Yildirim v. Turkey; MTE v Hungary


Martin Husovec,
<http://www.husovec.eu/> <http://www.husovec.eu/>

- Assistant Professor at the Tilburg University (Tilburg Institute for Law,
Technology and Society & Tilburg Law and Economics Center)
- Affiliate Scholar at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet & Society
(CIS)

My research: http://ssrn.com/author=1912670
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