On the morning of May 28, 2019, Inventions of Silicon Valley: Law and Shaping the Future, a session of the Lecture Series on Institutional and Cultural Construction of the Digital Economy, was held in Conference Room 725, Mingde Law Building, Renmin University of China. This lecture intended to explore the experience behind Silicon Valley’s success so as to facilitate the institutional development of China’s digital economy. The keynote speaker was Professor Anupam Chander from Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Chander has conducted in-depth research on data privacy, internet law, intellectual property law, globalization and related issues, and has long been committed to exploring global regulatory frameworks for emerging technologies. The lecture was hosted by Associate Professor Ding Xiaodong, Associate Dean of the Renmin Law and Technology Institute, Renmin University of China Law School. We were honored to have the following distinguished guests present: Associate Professor Cheng Lei, Vice Dean of Renmin University of China Law School; Associate Professor Zhang Wenliang and Guo Rui, Research Fellow of the Renmin Law and Technology Institute, Renmin University of China Law School; Assistant Professor Xiong Bingwan, Research Fellow of the Renmin Law and Technology Institute, Renmin University of China Law School; Professor Wang Qinghua, Beijing Normal University Law School; Research Fellow Liu Jinrui, Law Institute of China Law Society; Senior Research Fellow Ye Doudou, Tengyun Think Tank.

      Professor Chander began with his keynote speech, introducing the conventional explanations for Silicon Valley’s success, the misconceptions embedded in such explanations, and the role law played in Silicon Valley’s development. According to Professor Chander, Silicon Valley’s triumph in the internet age can be attributed to the United States’ lenient legal environment, which features limited platform liability, flexible copyright protection rules, and mild privacy restrictions. In terms of copyright protection, the fair use doctrine has greatly boosted the development of new technologies and innovation among internet enterprises in the United States. With regard to platform liability, while the U.S. is not the only jurisdiction that grants protection to online intermediaries, such safeguards in other countries and regions are far less robust. As for privacy, the U.S. has yet to enact comprehensive, stringent federal privacy legislation. Nevertheless, privacy is not entirely unprotected under U.S. law. Enterprises are legally required to honor their privacy pledges; failure to do so may subject them to class-action lawsuits or litigation initiated by the Federal Trade Commission. The enactment of the California Consumer Privacy Act signals that internet companies will face stricter regulatory oversight worldwide. Regulators need to figure out how to guard against various risks while fostering innovation.

      During the comments and Q&A session, Professor Wang Qinghua from the Beijing Normal University Law School raised questions about algorithmic discrimination and the design of global regulatory frameworks. Professor Chander responded that boosting transparency is critical to addressing algorithmic discrimination. However, algorithmic transparency itself is plagued by obstacles including algorithmic gaming and poor user comprehensibility. Accordingly, further thorough deliberation is required to figure out how to realize meaningful, effective transparency. As to whether a unified global regulatory framework can be established, many countries currently advocate data localization policies that prohibit the outflow of domestic data, while the European Union has set stringent standards for data circulation. Against this backdrop, building a global regulatory framework is far from an easy task. National-level regulation remains indispensable, yet national regulatory regimes inevitably diverge. Therefore, when shaping a global regulatory framework, all countries need to reach consensus on international standards to the greatest possible extent.

      Other participating scholars, including Research Fellow Liu Jinrui from the Law Institute of China Law Society; Associate Professor and Vice Dean Cheng Lei of Renmin University of China Law School; Associate Professor Zhang Wenliang and Guo Rui, Research Fellow of the Renmin Law and Technology Institute, Renmin University of China Law School; Assistant Professor Xiong Bingwan, Research Fellow of the Renmin Law and Technology Institute, Renmin University of China Law School; and Senior Research Fellow Ye Doudou from Tengyun Think Tank, also engaged in in-depth exchanges and discussions on relevant issues.

      At the end of the lecture, Associate Professor Ding Xiaodong delivered a summary. He pointed out that the European Union excels at institutional innovation regarding data privacy, epitomized by the GDPR, and most countries worldwide have adopted GDPR-inspired regulatory frameworks. While China and the United States compete in technological development, the two sides share extensive common ground and will eventually develop more efficient and practical mechanisms to address the challenges accompanying technological advancement. What can we do to attain this objective? This question merits further in-depth reflection. Professor Chander fully agreed with this viewpoint. He remarked that the EU, the United States and China have each chosen distinct regulatory paths; it is vital to distill and compare their respective features, which will help us explore more rational governance approaches. Admittedly, this exploration is far from easy. Consensus-building serves as the foundation, and thorough deliberation is indispensable.

     With this, the lecture Inventions of Silicon Valley: Law and Shaping the Future of the Lecture Series on Institutional and Cultural Construction of the Digital Economy came to a successful close.

Editor:Xu Liuya

Reviewer: Zhu Peiwen