Emma Rengers

• LLM, University of Cambridge (Queens’ College)
• BSc, University of Amsterdam

I am a legal scholar with an interdisciplinary background. My recent work has primarily revolved around the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. To complement my legal education, I spent the first year of my PhD in the School of Computer Science, taking modules on machine learning. I have been a member of various interdisciplinary research clusters involving lawyers and computer scientists since 2019.

I regularly contribute to policy debates around AI regulation through policy consultations and as a member of working groups.

I have previously taught legal theory, international law, and technology regulation at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Birmingham. I currently teach at the London Interdisciplinary School, with a focus on AI ethics and regulation.

My research interests include algorithmic regulation, AI regulation, impacts of emerging technologies on human rights and the rule of law, theories of liberty, and arbitrary power.  

PhD title

The Rule of Law Implications of Law Enforcement Use of Computer Vision Technologies

Supervisors

Professor Karen Yeung and Dr Hyung Jin Chang

Computer vision is a subfield of artificial intelligence which concerns itself with “teaching computers how to see.” The ability to automatically analyse visual data has many useful applications for the domain of law enforcement. For example, there are computer vision systems which claim to be able to detect acts of violence, prohibited items, weapons, deception, and illegal border crossings. Those applications could be used to establish “facts” which justify the use of coercive force by the state. The constitutional principles of non-arbitrariness and the rule of law require that where decisions of human law enforcement officers are either replaced or assisted by machine learning technologies, procedural safeguards appropriate for those technologies are in place. My research uses insights from legal theory, political theory, critical data studies, and computer science to show the need for such procedural safeguards for law enforcement use of computer vision, and to make suggestions regarding the contours of such safeguards.

• Member of the Society of Legal Scholars
• Co-Lead of the Law and Tech Cluster
• PostMillennial Law Group Steering Committee
• Birmingham Global’s U21 PhD travel scholarship (2020)
• College of Arts and Law PhD scholarship (covers fees and stipend)

Presentations:

• A Multi-Disciplinary Intro to Deepfakes, Law and Tech Cluster, University of Birmingham, November 2020
• Democracy On the Margins of the Market: A Critical Look Into the Privatisation of Cyber Norm Formation, Cyber Norms Conference, The Hague Program for Cyber Norms, November 2020
• The Looming Challenge of Deepfakes: Bridging the Disciplinary Divide, Society of Legal Scholars Conference, September 2020