Dimitri van den Meerssche is a new Lecturer in Law and Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Fellow at Queen Mary. He talks to us about himself, and his research.
It is always tricky to paint a picture of one's past and present life, so let me stick to some relatively random bullet points: born in Bruges, bouldering-enthusiast, a brother of sisters, color blind (does not help with the bouldering), Bruges-Gent-Copenhagen-Cotonou-Accra-Cairo-New York-Firenze-The Hague-London, once I thought I was a poet. Recent things that touched/inspired me: Christina Sharpe's talk "what could a vessel be?" in Venice, and In the Distance by Hernan Diaz.
In terms of academic background, I am rooted most firmly in the field of public international law. I am a teacher of international law (also at Queen Mary, where I am convening the introductory PIL module), and I wrote my thesis at the European University Institute on the changing roles, practices and professional ideals of international law(yers) in the World Bank. My first monograph, based on this dissertation, is coming out just now: The World Bank's Lawyers: The Life of International Law as Institutional Practice (OUP). My writing in this field aims to enrich critical approaches to international law with insights and methods from actor-network theory, new materialism, practice theory and professional sociology. This methodological focus is important for me and also guides my current work on international law and technology. I have recently organised a series of lectures and workshops on method, methodology and critique in international law. As IHSS Fellow at Queen Mary, I would like to build on this with a new series of this kind in 2023 that takes these multidisciplinary explorations further - in collaboration with the institute and the other IHSS fellows.
In my last few years of postdoctoral research, I have become increasingly interested in how the use of new digital technologies changes the law and practice of global governance. The empirical focus of my research has specifically been on changing practices of border control, counterterrorism and online content moderation. During the last two years, I was involved in the UKRI-funded infra-Legalities project (led by Gavin Sullivan), which maps how "AI-led security, and the data infrastructures that sustain it, are reshaping law and governance, rights and accountability". In a recent article in the European Journal of International Law on "virtual borders", I provide a critical account of the inequalities and forms of exclusion that are enacted by algorithmic techniques of scoring and sorting people on the move. One of my main observations in this research is how existing legal norms and safeguards seem to fall short in containing the violence inflicted by these new systems of governance.
In the next few years, I want to continue pursuing this research agenda, which has only become more relevant in light of the UK's recent Border Strategy and the EU's strategy on the "use of artificial intelligence in border control, migration and security". I am particularly interested in how the combined use of big data and machine learning creates new forms of subjectivity and threatens the formation and durability of political communities and collectives. In the next years, I want to work with activists, designers and critical AI researchers to explore ways of exposing and counteracting these risks. This project links with the socio-legal orientation of my past work and builds on my interest in the philosophy of science, data activism and new materialist theory. I will also remain involved with the ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology, which I co-created some years ago.