Second 2021 Thematic: ‘Big Technology and the Law’

The UNSW Law Journal is currently welcoming submissions for Issue 44(3). The Issue will comprise of both a general component and a thematic component, with articles directed to the theme ‘Big Technology and the Law’.

Governments and businesses across Australia, the United States (‘US’) and the European Union are grappling with the complexities of regulating the market power of big technology companies. In Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platforms Inquiry, the mandatory news media bargaining code and the Ad Tech Inquiry raise important questions for regulators seeking to reform competition and consumer law in the digital age. The recent ‘big tech’ antitrust hearing and other antitrust developments in the US also highlight the growing significance of data as a source of market power, and an increasing number of organisations are leveraging data as an asset. The challenges of regulating markets in an increasingly digitalised world present topical and significant issues for legal professionals and organisations to consider.

In addition to competition and consumer law, other novel legal issues have arisen as a result of new technological developments, including questions around privacy and data, national security and the importance of addressing disinformation on digital platforms. The thematic component of Issue 44(3) welcomes all submissions considering the intersection between the law and technology, with priority given to articles exploring legal issues relevant to ‘big technology’.

‘Big technology’ has become synonymous with companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet. However, ‘big technology’ is not limited to these companies; it may be defined in numerous ways, including through market size and market power or by virtue of its significant impact on our lives. For submissions relating to big technology and the law, the Journal invites authors to formulate their own definition of ‘big technology’.

The full call for submissions can be found here.

The submission deadline for the thematic Issue 44(3) is 19 February 2021, with publication of Issue 44(3) set for late September 2021. Articles must be between 7000 and 13 000 words in length (excluding footnotes). The style guide for the Journal is the current edition of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, as supplemented by the latest edition of the Journal’s ‘Additions’. Please visit our submissions page here for further submissions guidelines and to submit.

If you have any queries about submitting for Issue 44(3), please contact the Journal at law.journal@unsw.edu.au.