ODEC 9325 - The legal architectures of global digital governance

Practices of global digital governance are deeply enmeshed in legal architectures. The object of this course is to understand, analyze and critically reflect on the institutions, sources, objects and modes of contestation of global digital governance. From digital security governance to development governance, actions to develop digital practices beyond the level of the nation state have been proliferating. In addition to studying the institutions of global digital governance, we will empirically and theoretically analyze the unusual norms they create. We will also zoom in on some of the objects affected by practices and institutions of global digital governance – bodies, communities, the environment – to reflect on how practices of global digital governance produce new modes of subjectivities and invite us to (re)think traditional legal categories, as well as traditional legal modes of contestation.

• Students will write an essay (4000 words excluding footnotes) on a topic of their choice. The topic must relate to one of the specific or cross-cutting questions discussed in the course and must be preliminarily approved by the lecturer. They will submit their final essay notes at rebecca.mignotmahdavi@sciencespo.fr. (To avoid confusion, please submit your essay using the following heading: [NAME] – IL & Literature Essay).
• Participation will be taken into account and will contribute to the award of one extra point (+1) or the loss of a point (-1). Active participation will be rewarded with one extra point (+1) and insufficient participation will be sanctioned by the loss of one point (-1).

The course will be delivered through interactive seminars where all students are expected to participate based on their reading of the materials prescribed for each seminar. Reading is compulsory. For each seminar, students will be expected to read between 1 and 3 pieces of scholarship (approx 3-4 hours of preparation per week in total). Participation is expected from everyone and will be taken into account in the evaluation.