On 27 January, Law Societies’ Brussels Office will hold one of the panel sessions during the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference in Brussels (25-27 January). The topic of the panel is mass surveillance and how it impacts on justice systems across Europe and beyond.
The panel will address how rising State surveillance impacts the administration of justice in modern societies. It will look at the threat to client confidentiality, legal professional privilege and how that impacts proper administration of justice. The panel will also reflect on the quality of State regulation in the field of criminal investigations and intelligence and the basic principles it should follow. To that end, it will examine the recent developments in selected EU Member States (for example, the Investigatory Powers Act in the UK or état d’urgence in France). Finally, the panel will look at the emerging challenges for the State regulation and the core values for the legal profession and the justice system.
The panel will be chaired by Peter Wright from Digital Law UK who is Chair of the Technology and Law Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales. The discussion will be moderated by Jennifer Baker who is a journalist specialising in data protection, privacy and technology. The panel speakers include:
- Margarete Graefin von Galen, Representative of the German Federal Bar (BRAK);
- Dr Nathalie Moreno, Partner, Lewis Silkin, London, member of the Paris Bar and Law Society of England and Wales;
- Sir Michael Burton, President of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (UK);
- Professor Nico van Eijk, Faculty of Law, Institute of Information Law, University of Amsterdam
CPDP is a non-profit platform originally founded in 2007 by research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université de Namur and Tilburg University. The platform was joined in the following years by the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique and the Fraunhofer Institut für System und Innovationsforschung and has now grown into a platform carried by 20 academic centres of excellence from the EU, the US and beyond.
The conference, which takes place annually, gathers practitioners in the field of data protection, privacy and technology. It is aimed at exchanging ideas on the emerging issues and trends in the field. It usually attracts leading EU and national policy makers, lawyers, academics and NGOs. Over three days, the conference features four parallel panels and side events.
For full programme of the conference please click here.
