Marcelo Thompson

Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Law

Dr Marcelo Thompson is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong. He holds a DPhil from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, an LLM (Law and Technology) from the University of Ottawa, and an LLB and a Post-Graduate Diploma (Intellectual Property Law) from PUC-Rio. Dr Thompson’s teaching and research interests lie at the intersection of technology law and politics, with a focus on the regulation of technological platforms, privacy, data governance, and artificial intelligence. His doctoral thesis at Oxford, which he completed with a full scholarship from The CAPES Foundation of the Brazilian Ministry of Education, examined the idea of neutrality in technology law and politics, a theme that still informs much of his work in the field. Dr Thompson’s work on the responsibility of technological platforms was the first to propose the concept of a scalable, efforts-based duty of care that now underlies contemporary regulatory approaches to the topic.

Dr Thompson is currently the Principal Investigator of a Public Policy Research Grant awarded by the Hong Kong Chief Executive’s Policy Unit. The project investigates the scope and genealogy of the Hong Kong Government’s power to decide on the technological standards applicable in the Region (Article 139(2) of the Hong Kong Basic Law) and advocates for a balanced exercise of such power in the regulation of technological platforms. Dr Thompson’s recent and upcoming work develops a framework for international convergence on regulatory approaches to data governance, explores the neutrality visions at the heart of the first ‘Internet Bill of Rights’ in the world (the Brazilian ‘Marco Civil’), analyses the justice implications of China’s Social Credit System, and elucidates the connections between privacy and the very notion of law.

 

Specialized areas:

  • Jurisprudence and Political Theory
  • Regulation and Governance of the Internet
  • Identity, Privacy and Data Protection
  • Copyright and Access to Knowledge