When tech meets social justice

Dr Wilkinson’s research and teaching expertise in human rights and technology, and intellectual property is an inspiring example of the expertise of the Law Faculty. Her passion for tech and social justice is compelling:

The Tech + Social Justice Week was a fantastic opportunity for UTS academics, students and alumni to explore the way technology poses incredible opportunities for social justice and well as incredible threats. As lawyers, rights-based principles and regulation are critical tools we can and should use to ensure that technology brings good.

The week of events and activities was two-fold: to showcase the Faculty’s research and teaching expertise and to bring together a range of groups to engage in conversations about the impact of technology on social justice and its future potential.

The week began with a brilliant discussion of the positive and negative implications of technology for women’s rights by Associate Professor Ramona Vijeyarasa in her Brennan Justice Talk ‘When Tech meets Women’s Rights’. The Justice Talk is part of the Faculty’s Brennan Justice and Leadership Program. Associate Professor Vijeyarasa is the Chief Investigator behind the Gender Legislative Index, an innovative tool that uses human evaluators and machine learning to measure how well domestic legislation advances gender equality, and the author of ‘The Woman President: Leadership, Law and Legacy for Women Based on Experiences from South and Southeast Asia’. Associate Professor Vijeyarasa shared the purpose of her talk as:

I wanted to use the opportunity to share my own experiences, as an academic and activist, of the ways in which technology can advance social justice and be used as a tool by women and gender diverse people to call on governments to make legal, policy and budgetary reforms. It is about finding a balance when we talk about new and emerging technologies such as AI: finding the good and making sure the bad gets the attention, including the legislative attention, that it deserves.

Faculty of Law Technology and IP research cluster members (Professor Natalie Stoianoff, Dr Sacha Molitorisz, Dr Evana Wright, Dr Karen Lee, Dr George Tian, Professor David Lindsay, Professor Derek Wilding, Dr Kristopher Wilson) presented twelve snapshots of their cutting-edge technology research and reflected on its social justice implications in an online seminar. Research areas ranged from digital platform regulation to planned obsolescence and the circular economy to generative AI and the internet of things. The seminar included insights from Professors Andrew Mowbray and Philip Chung into their important work furthering access to legal information at AustLII. Dr Genevieve Wilkinson shared her research on using tracking and tracing technology as part of a rights-based approach to regulating e-cigarettes. PhD candidate Linda Przhedetsky informed us about her innovative research on the impact of technology for social justice in housing.

Academics welcomed the opportunity to share their specialist research with students, including being interviewed by a panel of students. Wendy Lam, Fauzia Hussein and Daniel Case were impressive with their thoughtful questions to each presenter, reflecting their own expertise as well as their firsthand experiences as alumni of the Allens Neota UTS Law Tech Challenge for Social Justice. UTS LSS Vice-President (Social Justice) Rianne Hamad reflected on the seminar presentations:

Having academic insight into the benefits and inherent challenges access to technology has within the legal sphere offered me something to ponder following the panel. More specifically, it is quite interesting to note the gap present in consumer protection laws requiring adaptation for the use of modern legal technology to achieve the social justice goals they were created to accomplish.

On the Thursday evening, the Tech driving social justice panel event was appropriately held in the UTS Startups space. The expert panelists, Melissa Fai, Sophie Farthing, Rachael Polt-Cai and Dominic Woolrych, were asked a series of questions by panel chair, Dean Anita Stuhmcke, including the intersection of tech and social justice and the future impact of technology on justice. Dominic Woolrych gave many examples from Lawpath, Rachael Polt-Cai explained the great impact of the NALA (New Age Legal Assistant) project at the Marrickville Legal Centre and Melissa Fai drew on examples of pro bono work done at Gilbert + Tobin. Sophie Farthing from the UTS Sydney Human Technology Institute recognised that regulation of technology remains critically important for the protection of human rights and fulfilment of social justice.

Fourth year Law and Communications student, Hannah Lambert, won the Tech and IP Research Cluster Most Innovative Idea competition for ideas that used technology to make the world a more sustainable place (in twenty words or less). Hannah proposed an ‘LGA Waste Directory app: which waste goes where, drop-off locations for specific waste (i.e., e-waste) and a community repurposing blog.’

Professor Stuhmcke summarised the outcome of the Tech + Social Justice Week as:

At a time when disruptive technology is causing significant concerns for social justice, the Faculty is proud to showcase the expertise of our academics who are thoughtfully responding to these concerns. Importantly, the week encouraged students to engage with staff, expert external guests and alumni to learn how innovation and technology can promote access to justice across diverse legal environments.

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