The Law and Tech Research Cluster was proud to participate in the GIG-ARTS 2025 Conference, hosted by the Università degli Studi di Salerno from 28–30 May. This year’s theme — “The Rise of Digital Sovereignty: Ambiguities and Challenges” — provided a timely and critical space for discussing how power, governance, and regulation are being reshaped in the digital age.
Reflecting our Cluster’s commitment to interdisciplinary and critical research at the intersection of law and technology, Dr. Edoardo Celeste (Cluster Coordinator), along with researchers Alba Pérez Victorio, Karolin Rippich, and Victor Henriquez Diaz, presented ongoing research projects exploring various dimensions of digital sovereignty.
In the panel European Digital Sovereignty: Digital Constitutionalism, Digital Autonomy and Normative Power, Celeste, Pérez Victorio, and Henriquez Diaz presented their research project titled “EU Digital Sovereigntism: the Risks of Strategic Autonomy” examined how EU initiatives to strengthen digital sovereignty—while aimed at ensuring strategic autonomy—may give rise to legal, economic, and environmental trade-offs. Their work interrogates the extent to which these policies remain aligned with the EU’s foundational values.
In the panel Decolonial and Indigenous Perspectives on Digital Sovereignty, Karolin Rippich presented her research “Reclaiming Sovereignty or Reinforcing Marginalisation? Anti-Gender Movements, Digital Sovereignty, and the Framing of ‘Gender Ideology’ as Neocolonial Imposition”, which analysed how anti-gender movements are appropriating digital sovereignty rhetoric to resist EU norms. Her contribution highlighted the need to better understand how these narratives shape policy debates, particularly around children’s online safety and digital rights.
The conference brought together scholars from law, political science, communication, and science and technology studies, fostering valuable exchanges across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. We are grateful to the GIG-ARTS community for hosting such an intellectually stimulating and collegial event, and we look forward to continuing these conversations in our future work.
