Public Symposium on Privacy Laws at NUI Galway

On Friday 8 March, the LL.M. in Public Law and LL.M. in Law, Technology and Governance convened a symposium on “Privacy from Birth to Death and Beyond: European and American Perspectives”.Speakers included Mr. José María Baño, Instituto de Empresa and José María Baño León Abogados, Madrid; Professor Joshua Fairfield of the Washington and Lee University Law School; Dr. Sharon McLaughlin, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Mr. Paul Lambert, Merrion Legal Solicitors and Mr. Damien McCallig, School of Law, NUI Galway.

The event attracted almost 100 people, including undergraduate and postgraduate students from NUI Galway and elsewhere, staff from across the university and practising lawyers, journalists and others with an interest in the impact of new technologies on privacy in the information age. Discussion ranged from whether we have a “right to be forgotten” online, the role of contract law in protecting consumer privacy, the confused rules that govern post-mortem privacy, how to balance the participation and protection of children in the online world and the challenges that face practitioners who have to rely on case law and legislation that were developed without the digital environment in mind. The symposium was a fascinating and provocative exploration of an issue that has gone from a minority concern to headline news in a few short years, and has changed dramatically even over the past twelve months.