The Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Harm Caused by Non-State Actors: The Limitations of Current Approaches, Notably in the Context of Artificial Intelligence

The lecture will focus on the way in which international human rights law applies in relation to harm caused by non-State actors. Both the theories and application of (indirect) horizontal effect by UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies will be critically discussed. Attention will be drawn to the limitations of the current framework of international human rights law, particularly in light of contemporary challenges such as the development and use of artificial intelligence.

Lottie Lane is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law and Post-doctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. In 2018, she co-founded the Business and Human Rights Working Group of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research, which she co-chaired until 2022. Lottie is also a member of the Editorial Board of Springer Nature Social Sciences. She obtained her PhD on ‘The Horizontal Effect of International Human Rights Law: Towards a Multi-level Governance Approach’ at the University of Groningen in 2018. In her current research project funded by the Dutch Sectorplan for Law, Lottie analyses the responsibility and accountability of private businesses developing and deploying AI from a law and governance perspective. 

Dr. Lane is visiting the University of Lausanne in the framework of the Doc.CH grant of Carlotta Manz and supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Use of genetic data by private parties: adressing the main threats to human rights, grant nr. 207184).

Dr Lane will speak on zoom. If you would like to attend his talk, we invite you to come to ANT- 2097 on the 3 May at 11:15. (If you are unable to come to campus, please send an email to evelyne.schmid@unil.ch to request the zoom link, ideally at least a day in advance)