Bob Baxt AO Annual Address in Corporate and Commercial Law

Introductory Remarks: Rebecca Maslen-Stannage, Chair and Senior Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills

Rebecca is a market leading expert in mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets and corporate governance, based on Sydney. She combines her busy deal practice with being Chair and Senior Partner of Herbert Smith Freehills. Rebecca is a repeat “Australian Dealmaker of the Year” winner, former Chair of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia and a member of the Takeovers Panel.

Co-Chair: Professor Jennifer Hill, Bob Baxt AO Chair, Monash Law & Director of CLARS

Professor Jennifer Hill is the inaugural Bob Baxt AO Professor of Corporate and Commercial Law at Monash University Faculty of Law and is the Director of the Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies (CLARS). She is an internationally recognised legal scholar in the field of comparative corporate law and governance. Jennifer is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and has held visiting teaching and research positions at leading international institutions, including the University of Cambridge; NYU Law School; University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University Law School. She is also Vice-Chair of the Global Corporate Governance Colloquia (GCGC).

Co-Chair: Professor Chris Marsden, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Technology and the Law, Monash Law

Chris Marsden is Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Technology and the Law at Monash University and an expert on Internet and digital technology law, having researched and taught in the field since 1995. Chris researches regulation by code - whether legal, software or social code. He is author of five monographs including "Net neutrality" (2017), "Regulating Code" (2013 with Prof. Ian Brown), "Internet Co-regulation" (2011). He is author of many refereed articles, book chapters, professional articles, keynote addresses, and other scholarly contributions. He joins Monash from Sussex Law School, where he was Professor of Law (2013-22) and the founder and Director of the Centre for Information Governance Research (@SussCIGR) and Co-Investigator in the UK Trusted Autonomous Systems Governance and Regulation consortium (UKRI-EPSRC @tas_governance) and Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (UKRI-ESRC @Centre4ITP).

Address Title: Access Rules – What To Do About Data Barons

There is severe market concentration in cyberspace.

A small number of digital superstar companies have captured much of the market. Most of these superstar companies are headquartered in the US, raising additional concerns about “digital sovereignty.” Increasing use of data-driven artificial intelligence will only exacerbate the situation.

How should policy makers respond? Some have suggested broadening the scope for antitrust and competition law. Others have pushed for new taxes targeting digital superstars. Classic industrial policy is a further suggestion.

But how effective are these measures?

In this talk Professor Mayer-Schönberger will suggest that we need to get to the root cause of the problem to tackle it successfully. And this means talking about: data. Or more precisely access to it. Because data is so different to physical goods, regulatory regimes that work well for physical goods are less effective when dealing with data. But historical precedents, such as intellectual property, and recent successes of data sharing offers useful guidance for establishing a novel access regime. Professor Mayer-Schönberger aims to address how this could work, and what are its key advantages and weaknesses.