In response to the pandemic and its public health challenges, many data-informed responses have been proposed and applied, including contact-tracing applications and tools such as data dashboards to map the spread of the virus. Data protection law has been the primary legal framework invoked to govern these responses. Using the example of the NHS contact tracing application in England, this seminar will discuss the potential of data protection law to regulate such processing effectively as well as its limits.

Orla Lynskey is an Associate Professor and joined LSE Law in September 2012. She teaches and conducts research in the areas of data protection, technology regulation, digital rights and EU law. She holds an LLB (Law and French) from Trinity College Dublin, an LLM in EU Law from the College of Europe (Bruges) and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. This PhD research has been developed into a monograph, The Foundations of EU Data Protection Law, published by OUP in 2015. She is called to the Bar of England and Wales and working in Competition law practice in Brussels before beginning her doctoral research. She is an editor of International Data Privacy Law (OUP) and the European Law Blog, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the European Data Protection Law Review.

David Kershaw is Professor of Law at the LSE and Director of the Executive LLM Programme. He is also the General Editor of the Modern Law Review. He joined the LSE in 2006. Prior to joining the LSE he was a Lecturer in Law at the University of Warwick between 2003-2006. He is admitted to the New York Bar and is a qualified UK solicitor. Prior to his academic career, he qualified as a Solicitor at Herbert Smith, London and practised corporate law in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Shearman & Sterling in New York and London. He holds a LLM and SJD from Harvard Law School and a LLB from the University of Warwick.

This event is organised in coordination with the ELLM Alumni Association.