IViR is pleased to announce that Joris van Hoboken has been appointed, per 1 March 2024, as a full professor at IViR, to the chair ‘Information Law, with special emphasis on Law and Digital Infrastructure’.
The aim of the chair is to contribute to research and education in the area of information law, specifically questions related to the legal frameworks for various aspects of digital infrastructure, such as communications, computation and online platforms, as well as questions related to the way in which our digital infrastructure shapes the project of law and regulation.
The field of Information Law has a long tradition in looking at the relevant infrastructural aspects for the information society, such as in the area of telecommunications and the media. Digital infrastructure has further developed extensively. It includes electronic (and mobile) communications, internet, cloud computing, online platforms, and potential new technologies that can play a role in the future, such as for instance quantum technology. Digital infrastructure has become a central factor in the changes that our societies are going through. It lies at the basis of the digital transformation of the economy, democracies and social life, at the local, national, European and international level. The chair connects to these developments and the urgency to study the legal implications of these transformations.
Joris van Hoboken has been connected to IViR since 2006, first as a PhD researcher, and later as a postdoctoral researcher, senior researcher, and Associate Professor. With his appointment as full professor, he has also become part of its Managing Board. From 2019, he leads the research initiative Digital Transformation of Decision Making at the Amsterdam Law School, together with prof. Dr. Mireille van Eechoud and Prof. Dr. Natali Helberger. He is the founding director of the DSA Observatory project, and is leading the research group on the law and governance of quantum technologies, established with the support of Quantum Delta NL. He coordinates the courses Telecommunications and Platform Regulation in the IViR Master Programme, as well as the Law School’s new Bachelor course on Law and Digitization.
Previously, Joris van Hoboken was appointed to the Chair ‘Fundamental Rights and Digital Transformation’ at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a chair established at the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS) with the support of Microsoft. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Information Law Institute (ILI) at New York University, School of Law (2013-2016), a Visiting Scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Business & Human Rights (2015-2016) and a lecturer at CornellTech (2016). From 2007-2017, Van Hoboken served on the Board of Directors of the Dutch digital rights organization Bits of Freedom, including as its chair. Van Hoboken obtained his PhD from the University of Amsterdam on the topic of search engines and freedom of expression (2012) and has graduate degrees in Law (2006, University of Amsterdam, cum laude) and Theoretical Mathematics (2002, University of Amsterdam, cum laude).
See also the interview with Joris on the UvA website:
‘Societies must be able to direct their digital future’