Molly Land, J.D.
Catherine Roraback Professor of Law and Human Rights; Associate Director, Human Rights Institute | University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT, UNITED STATES
Molly Land specializes in human rights and technology.
Biography
Drawing on her human rights expertise and background as an intellectual property litigator, Professor Land’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of human rights, science, and technology. Her most recent work considers the respective obligations of governments and Internet companies in regulating speech online as well as the effect of new technologies on human rights fact-finding, advocacy, and enforcement.
Professor Land’s articles have been published in the Yale, Harvard, and Michigan journals of international law, among other places, and she speaks and lectures widely on the relationship between technology and human rights. She has also authored several human rights reports, including a report for the World Bank on the role of new technologies in promoting human rights. Professor Land is a member of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Prior to joining the University of Connecticut, Professor Land was an associate professor of law at New York Law School. Her teaching experience also includes serving as a Visiting Lecturer in Law and Allard K. Lowenstein/Robert M. Cover Fellow in International Human Rights at Yale Law School. Before beginning her career in the academy, Professor Land was an associate at Faegre & Benson LLP in Minneapolis, where she represented clients in intellectual property disputes, and a fellow at Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. She clerked for the Honorable Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A former Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bonn, Professor Land earned her J.D. at Yale Law School.
Areas of Expertise (8)
Digital Rights
Intellectual Property Law
Technology and the Law
Human Rights
International Law
Cyberlaw
First Amendment
Social Media
Education (3)
Yale Law School: J.D. 2001
University of Bonn: Fulbright Scholar 1997
Hamline University: B.A., English & Women's Studies 1996
Media
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Media Appearances (3)
President Trump To Lose Twitter Protections After Leaving White House
Newsy online
2020-11-10
“Twitter is a commercial platform," said Molly Land, Professor of Law and Human Rights, University of Connecticut. "It has an interest in keeping Trump on their platform. These are platforms that have a business model and the business model is attracting eyeballs and he does that. So I think it might be hard for them to de-platform him."
The UK’s plan to deny terrorists ‘safe spaces’ online would make us all less safe in the long run
The Conversation
2017-06-15
In the wake of the recent attacks in Manchester and London, British Prime Minister Theresa May has called on social media companies to eliminate “safe spaces” online for extremist ideology. Despite losing the majority in the recent election, she is moving forward with plans to regulate online communications, including in cooperation with newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron...
Trump Is Undermining Higher Education as a Global Enterprise
The Chronicle of Higher Education print
2017-01-31
There are many reasons to be outraged at President Trump’s recent executive order temporarily suspending refugee arrivals and barring individuals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the United States. The ban, however, should alarm us not just as Americans or as fellow humans, but as educators. The Wall Street Journal estimates that there are more than 17,000 students and over 2,000 teachers and researchers at U.S. universities and colleges from the seven countries identified in the order. Those who were abroad when the order was issued cannot return to their homes and places of study or work in the United States.
Articles (6)
Beyond Takedown: Expanding the Toolkit for Responding to Online Hate
Propaganda, War Crimes Trials and International Law: From Cognition to Criminality2020 The current preoccupation with ‘fake news’ has spurred a renewed emphasis in popular discourse on the potential harms of speech. In the world of international law, however, ‘fake news’ is far from new. Propaganda of various sorts is a well-worn tactic of governments, and in its most insidious form, it has played an instrumental role in inciting and enabling some of the worst atrocities of our time.
Against Privatized Censorship: Proposals for Responsible Delegation
Virginia Journal of International Law, Forthcoming2019 From beheadings to hate speech, the internet is awash in material that poses risks to a range of state objectives. And in light of recent events — from Facebook’s role in the genocide in Myanmar to the way in which social media was used by the perpetrator of the Christchurch massacre — the question is no longer whether, but how, states will regulate social media platforms. Governments, however, have responded to the problem of harmful online content by privatizing censorship.
The Problem of Platform Law: Pluralistic Legal Ordering on Social Media
SSRN2019 The internet would seem to be an ideal platform for fostering the development of multiple overlapping communities seeking to be governed by their own norms. The very structure of the internet resists centralized governance, while the opportunities it provides for the “long tail” of expression means even voices with extremely small audiences can find a home. In reality, however, the governance of online speech looks much more monolithic.
Toward an International Law of the Internet
Harvard International Law Journal2013 The Internet has an international law problem. International institutions ranging from the International Telecommunication Union to the UN General Assembly are becoming increasingly involved in regulating the Internet. Apart from the question of the desirability of...
Networked Activism
Harvard Human Rights Journal2009 The same technologies that groups of ordinary citizens are using to write operating systems and encyclopedias are fostering a quiet revolution in another area-social activism. On websites such as Avaaz. org and Wikipedia, citizens are forming groups to report on human rights violations and organize e-mail writing campaigns, activities formerly the prerogative of professionals. Because the demands ...
Peer Producing Human Rights
Alberta Law Review2009 Contrary to popular belief, it may indeed be possible to get something for nothing-and the benefits of doing so might far exceed our expectations. Despite the apparent lack of an incentive, ordinary citizens are using on-line spaces such as YouTube and Wikipedia to ...
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