Tech Events by Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh Law School launches the second edition of Law, Policy and the Internet (Hart/Bloomsbury) with a panel on where tech regulation is heading. All three editors speak: Dr Lachlan Urquhart, Senior Lecturer in Technology Law and Human-Computer Interaction at Edinburgh; Emerita Professor Lilian Edwards of Newcastle University, currently a visiting scholar at Edinburgh; and Dr Catalina Goanta of Utrecht University, plus some of the contributors. On the table: the state of AI governance, digital sovereignty, dealing with an increasingly unreal world, what nobody expected in 2026 and what 2036 might look like. Wine reception after. Free, 15:00 to 17:00 in the Usha Kasera Lecture Theatre at Old College.

Edinburgh Law School hosts a session on how states are intervening in the semiconductor industry - subsidies, export controls and national champions - and what that means for the companies caught in between. The discussion sits at the point where industrial policy meets supply chains: who gets protected, what compliance actually lands on firms, and how export restrictions ripple down to people buying or designing silicon. It is free, runs 14:00 to 16:00, and is explicitly relevant beyond lawyers - anyone working near hardware, supply chains or deeptech policy will recognise the questions. The organisers moved this online only on 15 October. There is no longer a room in Edinburgh: the Microsoft Teams joining link and a background paper go out to registrants by email, so register on Eventbrite rather than travelling to Old College.

Andrea Monti presents Lost in the Shell at Edinburgh Law School, arguing that the sharper risk of technology is not what machines become but what people are willing to become because of them. One hour.