Technology: Transforming the Regulatory Endeavor

The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and Berkeley Technology Law Journal, in conjunction with the UC Berkeley Center for Law Energy & the Environment, School of Information, and Goldman School of Public Policy will host a symposium on March 3, 2011 to address the ways that technological developments are transforming the task of regulation.

The two morning panels will provide a discussion of the broad issues affecting this transformation. The first panel will consider the increasing attempts to use technology to enhance regulatory capacity, both by using it to improve government capacity for decision-making and monitoring, and by employing "code" as a regulatory tool in addition to formal law. It will address both the powerful potential of this development, as well as some of the concerns it raises. The second panel will consider the challenges posed for legislation and regulatory promulgation by the rapid technological change.

The keynote address by New York University technology scholar Helen Nissenbaum will consider the question of the "handoff"- when it is appropriate, or not, to make the move from conventional forms of regulation to technologically-based forms. This will set the stage for the three afternoon panels, which will address that question in three different substantive contexts: environmental regulation, privacy regulation, and risk management.