A Tribute to Joel Reidenberg

Abstract

Regarding his scholarship, time and time again in his work, Joel Reidenberg clarified issues in law and technology in a way that set the terms of the research agenda for other scholars. Indeed, the 2022 “Lex Informatica Symposium” of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal is a tribute to the lasting influence of one of his articles, the magnificent Lex Informatica. In this seminal paper from 1997, Joel developed a series of insights about how information policy depends on network designs and systems architecture.

But there is so much more to his scholarship than this one article.In a different set of papers, Joel was skeptical from the start of internet commerce of industry self-regulation for privacy. ways that self-regulation of internet privacy would fail. Time has shown how correct Joel was in these articles.Equally important are his writings about such diverse topics as student privacy, international trade, corporate privacy policies, and international data privacy law. Regarding student privacy, Joel ably drew on the resources of the Center on Law and Information Policy, which he had founded at Fordham Law School, to issue a stream of important papers. Beyond student privacy, another important area of Joel’s intellectual agenda concerned the connection between international trade law and privacy law.

Joel was the most innovative and thoughtful of legal scholars, the most loyal of friends, and a sensitive and kind person. He was a Mensch.

Keywords: privacy, data privacy, data protection