Responding to global digital transformations and the rapid adoption of emerging technologies, the working group believes that dialogue, public engagement, and scholarship that is inclusive and foregrounds underrepresented voices will help to ensure that digital governance regimes serve the world’s most vulnerable people. The members of the network are leading technology and law scholars from around the world. Since its launch in January 2020, the Global TechNet Initiative has sponsored significant conversations on global issues in law and technology, including organizing conferences and symposia on digital sovereignty, inclusive digital trade, and AI governance.

Inclusive Digital Trade

In collaboration with the Georgetown Institute for International Economic Law’s Center on Inclusive Trade and Development (CITD), the Global TechNet Working Group is organizing a year-long series of events on Inclusive Digital Trade aiming to convene interdisciplinary scholars from around the world, and especially underrepresented voices, to reimagine and help define a more equitable and inclusive digital future for all. While much has been made about the terms of inclusivity and digital trade, such terms both remain rather ill-defined concepts in regulatory and trade regimes. As trade agreements increasingly include digital chapters, such as in RCEP or CPTPP, it is imperative that those chapters include provisions that reflect the concerns of digital inclusion and equity and involve a wider set of stakeholders as we determine the digital rules of the road. See below for more details on our first event – Rethinking World Trade 2023.

Rethinking World Trade Conference 2023

The Global TechNet Working Troup is proud to have partnered with the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development to present the first annual Rethinking World Trade Conference on April 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. Set on the margins of the World Trade/IMF meetings, the conference brought together thought leaders from around the world in the international trade, development, research, and investment spaces to present papers and lead discussions among invited participants from the corporate, labor, development, think tank, policy-making, NGO, and international institutions community on the critical inclusive trade issues of the day.

AI Governance Series

One major initiative of the working group has been an AI Governance series co-hosted between the Yale Information Society Project (ISP) and the Tech Institute. The series coordinates panel discussions with scholars, experts and public and private representatives to debate issues of technology law and global digital governance. The program has featured conversations with privacy activist Max Schrems, U.S. Ambassador Katherine Tai, Taiwanese Digital Minister Audrey Tang, and many more.