In recent years, there are growing concerns about emerging technologies and, more in general, on the impact of science and technology on the society as a whole. Science and technology are often perceived as negative, elitist and consequently disputable at the point of creating dissent and distrust in increasing shares of the population. This type of dissent can be showed against Governments, or multinational companies possessing the technology or exploiting it for commercial reasons. In addition, there are also protests and contestations on how certain technologies collect information and use it for different scopes than the ones for which they have been collected.
By contrast, science and technology have also essential roles in pursuing the improvements of the society, granting access to technology is an extremely important tool for educational purposes in developing and developed countries, it can save lives when directly implemented in the health sector in both the rich and poor countries or regions or when they facilitate access to water or food or energy in countries where this access is not available to all, in particular the most vulnerable groups in the poorest or most disadvantaged countries.
In COVID-19 times, among the most important health crisis around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) still lists the death by road accidents, especially among adults as a growing concern. According to the global status report on road safety 2018 by World Health Organization, deaths from road traffic crashes have increased to 1.35 million a year (average of 3 700 people dying on the world’s roads every day). One of the saddest statistics revealed in this report is that road accident is the number one cause of death for children and young adults globally. There are several reasons why adults are involved in fatal road accidents: (1) over-confident, (2) poor assessment of hazard, (3) prevalent risk taking, (4) speeding, (5) not wearing seat belts, (6) mobile phone usage and (7) driving at night. Almost all of these factors are behavioral related, which are improvable through well-designed interventions. Today, almost everyone uses a smart hand phone, especially youths. These smarts phones are equipped with accurate built-in GPS and are portable telematics devices.
Based on the above literature, the main aim of this call for papers is to address telematics and road safety topics to reduce risky driving behavior amongst drivers. This can occur through a feedback mechanism customized for each driver based on risk profiling through obtained telematics data. Artificial intelligence will be designed in the feedback mechanism to provide such customized feedback. The secondary aim will be to create indirect interventions through the usage of telematics data for traffic violations citations and UBI without infringing data security and privacy.
In addition, this conference wants also to address which instruments and means can be enacted to insure for autonomous vehicles more broadly and the extent to which the use of certain insurance technologies (like telematics) is going to increase inequality and discrimination against those from lower socio-economic levels.
Based on the aforementioned, this call for papers is seeking contributions addressing the following topics with a focus on regulations, policies, science and technology at domestic, international, comparative and transnational perspective:
A conference will take place online.
Applications must be submitted by July 30,2022 via email to the attention of Imad Antoine Ibrahim (imad.ibrahim@qu.edu.qa) and Paolo Davide Farah (paolo.farah@glawcal.org.uk) and also to the following email address: research@glawcal.org.uk
Please include the following information:
• The author’s name and affiliation;
• A 300-word abstract [Word file or PDF];
• The author’s CV, including a list of relevant publications, if applicable;
• The author’s contact details, including e-mail address and phone number;
The international conference will take place in person, on the premises of the Qatar University, Center for Law and Development (CLD)on October 2-3, 2022
The organizers have plans to publish the contributions and intend to submit a book proposal to such publishers as Palgrave MacMillan or other prestigious international publishers.
Imad Antoine Ibrahim, Qatar University, College of Law, Center for Law and Development (CLD), Doha, Qatar.
Paolo Davide Farah, West Virginia University, John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, West Virginia, United States and gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development, UK.
The international conference is organized by Qatar University, Center for Law and Development (CLD), Qatar. The event is in collaboration with gLAWcal - Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development, UK, West Virginia University, Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics, WVU Eberly College Interdisciplinary Research Collaborative on Global Challenges and Local Response Initiative, USA and the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Interest Group on International Law and Technology.
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